Soulmates
by Animefreak00910
Summary: Can a dark cold assassin fall in love with a guy like Kakashi Hatake? With a past as mysterious and dark as she was? KakashiXOC
1. Shadow

The night was quiet and cool. The sound of night animals could be heard in the quiet forest while a dark figure was resting against a tree. She was comfortable by the dark forest because it kept her hidden in the shadows and she like the smell and sound of nature. A woman, wearing black garments, fully equipped with weapons, such as many throwing knives, daggers and – her favorite weapon – her black katana which was specially made.

Her long black hair resting on her skin smoothly like small strands of waterfall, her golden eyes closed as she was sleeping but she was still holding her guard by holding a throwing knife in one hand and the other holding her katana. Her face covered by mask and hood since she doesn't like people staring at her. She hated it whenever people stare at her, it just ticks her off. But she was trained to not let emotions control her. Whoever knew her, she was known as Shadow. She never revealed her real name to anyone.

When the first light of sun came from the horizon, she opened her eyes and saw the beautiful dawn. She stared at the beautiful scenario for a while, remembering every detail of its beauty. She decided that it was time to go. She stood up from the ground and stretched her neck a bit to earn a few sounds of cracks from her neck. She safely put her throwing knife and katana away then turned towards the north. *I believe that…Leaf village is that way. I should get some supplies there.*

* * *

><p>She walked through the forest path calmly with her hands in her pockets and her eyes glued on forward. She didn't bother to count how many hours she had been walking but she find it comfortable for just walking. Suddenly she heard a voice not far from her and it sounded like a big hot-headed to her. "Hey! How far are we from the village, sensei!"<p>

Shadow stopped for a moment while arching towards the direction where the voice came from. *I wonder who that is…* She shrugged it off since it doesn't matter to her and just kept walking towards the Leaf village.

Suddenly, she heard the voice again but it was shocking "H-Hey! Where did these thugs come from!"

Shadow stopped once more while staring at the same direction. She looked between the path of the village and the direction of the voice. She sighed heavily, knowing what she has to do. *Doing the right thing sometimes sucks…* she thought glumly. She quickly dashed towards the voice swiftly, dodging thick branches and bushes. She stopped when she saw three kids with an adult who were facing 10 thugs and they were surrounded. Shadow climbed onto the trees and sat on a high branch while looking down at them while keeping her chakra low. She wanted to see what happens first before interfering.

One of the thugs shouted "Give us everything you got or die!"

The one with she heard from before shouted "Like hell we do!" The kid had blonde spiky hair, blue eyes, whiskers on his face – making him to look like a cat – and wearing an orange jumpsuit. He was looking around the thugs daringly and determinedly.

Another boy got black hair in a shape of a chicken's ass, onyx eyes while wearing blue and white clothes. He was staring at the thugs coldly yet calmly.

The third child was a girl with pink long hair, green eyes and wearing a red dress with short green shorts. She was staring at the thugs in fear and determination. The adult was wearing a Jounin uniform with silver spiky hair going to one side, wearing a dark blue mask while his left eye was covered by his headband. Shadow looked at the headbands properly and saw the leaf village symbol. *So, they're from the Leaf village…* she thought while she was quietly studying them.

One of the thugs shouted "Oh, you ask for it, kid!" All the thugs immediately charged towards them while holding kunais in each hand. Shadow watched as the two boys fought the thugs, but the girl was not really capable of fighting. She was having trouble fighting with a thug with a kunai in her hand and she looked like she was going to scream.

But her mentor quickly saved her by kicking the thug in the stomach. Once he was dealt with, he turned to his female pupil "Are you all right, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded to her mentor "Thanks Kakashi sensei!"

Suddenly the boy with whiskers was pushed back and he landed on his back. He cursed loudly "Darn it!" He was going to get back on his feet but soon he was pinned down to the ground by a thug with a kunai holding to his throat.

"Move and you die" growled the thug who tackled the boy.

Sakura cried out for the boy "Naruto!" Kakashi was going to save his pupil but soon he was hit behind the neck and he groaned in pain. He landed on the floor and he was pinned down by three thugs with three kunais at his throat. "Kakashi sensei!" cried out the girl once more. She looked at the other boy to see him pinned as well "Sasuke!"

Now, what's all left is that pink headed girl. The other five thugs came walking towards her as she took a few steps back while looking at them in fear, trembling while holding a kunai. Naruto cried out "Sakura!" as he struggled under the thug's grasp. Sakura hit her back against the tree that Shadow was sitting on but she couldn't move any further as she was surrounded.

One of the thugs chuckled deeply "Now, if you want to live, give us everything you got." He eyed her dangerously and Sakura trembled even more. "Hmmm, you're quite cute. I wonder how much they would pay for you…?" he said thoughtfully as the other thugs chuckled.

Kakashi went tense and shouted as he struggled under the three thugs. "Get away from her!"

The thug who spoke glanced over his shoulder to Kakashi and smirked widely "You're not in any position to order me around, are you?"

Kakashi growled and the thugs pinned him down with more pressure to keep him down. "Damn you…" he growled deeply behind his mask as he glared at the thug.

The thug chuckled deeply then turned his attention back to Sakura. "Now, let's tie her up." One of the remaining thugs was already pulling out their ropes to tie her up and Sakura's legs were shaking. It caused her to drop on her knees then she finally screamed loudly at the top of her lungs as they approached her.

"SAKURA!" cried out Naruto.

Sakura shut her eyes tightly, expecting those thugs to tie her up but she didn't feel anything except heard the sound of bodies dropping to the floor. She hesitatingly opened her eyes and saw a woman wearing black garments with her back facing her. Sakura looked to see the thugs who were going to tie her up were lying on the floor, headless. She gasped softly as the sight of it "Oh my…" she looked up to the woman as she heard from her.

"My, taking advantage of a harmless girl?" asked the woman teasingly then shook her head disapprovingly as she clicked her mouth. "Now, that's hardly fair, is it?" she asked while putting her weight on one leg, putting a hand on her waist and her free hand holding a bloody black katana while looking at the thugs under her hood.

The thugs looked at her surprisingly then the leader demanded "Who the hell are you, bitch?"

She sighed heavily through her mask and rested her katana on her shoulder. "Well, since you're going to be dead in a matter of seconds. I guess you should know my name."

"How DARE you talk to us like that? You're dead, bitch!" shouted the leader in fury. He quickly pulled out some kunais with bomb tags attached to it then threw them to the woman.

"Sakura!" cried out Naruto one more time.

Sakura covered herself from the impact of the explosions. Although, Shadow quickly get to the side, grabbed the kunais as they passed by and threw them back to the thugs. They screamed when it went off. She mumbled under her breath while looking at the dead five corpses after the smoke cleared "Such idiots these days. When are they going to learn…?"

She turned to the others who flinched from her stare "Get out" she growled at them and they didn't hesitate to do so. Once they were gone, the comrades composed themselves as Shadow swung her sword sharply to one side to get the blood off then swiftly put it on her back.

Kakashi was the first to speak "Thank you, for saving our lives." Shadow only nodded to him as a 'you're welcome' gesture. Naruto immediately ran to Sakura who was still on her knees but she quickly stood up when Naruto came.

"Sakura, are you all right?" he asked worriedly. It was quite obvious that he has a big crush on her. Although, she looked quite disappointed while looking at Naruto and then glanced at the other boy who was studying Shadow.

Sakura sighed disappointingly *Darn it! I was hoping for Sasuke to worry about me! But no! It's always Naruto!*

The woman approached to Sakura and asked "Are you all right?"

Sakura stared up at the woman and froze when she saw her eyes, those deep golden eyes that were hidden by the shadow of her hood but Sakura could clearly see them. Sakura was quite for a minute while just staring at her. Her comrades were glancing at each other confusingly then Kakashi got to their side. "Sakura? Are you going to say 'thank you' to her?"

Sakura quickly snapped out of her thoughts and shook her head. She blushed furiously and bowed her head quickly to Shadow "I'm sorry! And thank you for saving my life!"

Shadow just smirked softly behind her mask. She shoved her hands in her pockets as she replied "No problem." She turned to Kakashi and nodded goodbye. Then she turned the direction down the road to the Leaf village.

Naruto quickly shouted "H-Hey, wait!" She stopped to glance at him over her shoulder and she saw him running to her. When he approached, he asked her "Where are you going? Are you going to the Leaf village?" She nodded. Suddenly his face beamed and said "Hey! That's where we're going! Why not come with us?"

Shadow looked down at the boy then glanced at his comrades. Kakashi walked towards them and asked appropriately "May I talk to you in private?" He nodded towards the side as Naruto glanced between them. Shadow nodded and went to the side with Kakashi. He asked her quietly so his pupils can't hear him. "I'm grateful for what you've done for us, truly. But why are you heading to the Leaf Village?"

Shadow stared at him blankly then glanced at his pupils who were talking with each other. Probably talking about what Kakashi and she were talking about. She returned her attention to Kakashi "I just need to get some supplies. Then I'm off. Although, I'm also meeting a friend there."

"A friend? Who?" Kakashi asked as he crossed his arms on his chest while eyeing her suspiciously.

"Anko Mitarashi."

"Anko?" Kakashi narrowed his…eye at her and asked her "What's your name…?"

"Shadow."

"…Just 'Shadow'?" She nodded "And how come Anko never mentioned about you?"

"…We worked together once or twice."

Kakashi arched a brow at her "How can I know that you won't be a threat to the village?"

Shadow inspected him carefully and she could tell that he was doing the same thing. She grabbed her katana and the team went tense. The kids went into fighting stance but stopped when they saw Shadow holding her katana to their mentor. "Will this ease you?" she asked him flatly while still holding her favorite black katana to him. He nodded and accepted it.

He mumbled "Well, that's a start." Then he said to his pupil "Come on, let's go home!"


	2. Perhaps

During the way, Naruto had been eyeing on Shadow like a hawk and she was quite getting annoyed by it. She first waited for him to get tired but through the hours of nonstop walking, he didn't cease. Kakashi, however, rescued her by saying to Naruto "You know you shouldn't stare at people like a hawk, Naruto, Especially to someone who saved your life."

Naruto finally tore his gaze from Shadow to his mentor "Come on, Kakashi sensei! I'm sure you're just as curious as I am!"

Sakura got an anime vein popping on her head then started to scowl at Naruto for being a nosy brat. "Naruto, leave her alone! She saved our lives and this is your repayment!" She whacked him hard from behind the head. Shadow just stared at the two kids as they argued, although Sakura was scolding Naruto like a mother. Even though he doesn't deserve THAT much.

Kakashi decided to end their argument by saying over his shoulder to them "Hey, knock it off you two. Is this how you behave around our guest?"

They both finally stopped and looked at the ground shamefully as they apologized to Shadow "Sorry."

Sasuke had been keeping an eye on Shadow since he first met her. He didn't say a single word since also. Whenever Sakura tries to talk or flirt with him, he would just ignore her entirely while looking at Shadow like a hawk as well. Shadow knew that he had been eyeing on her since the beginning and then decided to end it now. She asked him while looking at him under her hood "Is there something you need?"

The group stopped and they turned all of their attention to their dark headed comrade. He just stared at her to no end with a small glare. Sakura looked between Shadow and Sasuke worriedly. Kakashi just sighed heavily and asked his Uchiha pupil "What's the matter, Sasuke?"

He continued to glare at her and she returned the gesture. Finally, he asked "Who are you, really?"

Shadow arched a brow at him "Is that it? You just wanted to know my name?"

"…What's the problem with that? We've been travelling for hours and not once you told us your name, for the matter, asked who we are."

"I already know what your names are, kid. You're Sasuke," she nodded to Sakura "she's Sakura," she turned to Naruto "he's Naruto," and finally, their mentor "and he's Kakashi Hatake, the Copy-Cat Ninja, I presume." She nodded to him in some respect "Your reputation precedes you."

Kakashi nodded "And – forgive me if I'm mistaken – but I believe that you're that infamous Shadow Assassin that is well known through the five Nations?"

She bowed her head "The one and only."

Kakashi crossed his arms with a small smirk behind his mask "I knew it. I only heard very little of you. I only know your name, but I never heard of what your appearance was."

"I…wanted my reputation to be…discreet. It works best for me to work in the shadows. Since that's where I got my name from."

Kakashi chuckled deeply and said "No doubt about it."

The kids glanced between their mentor and the assassin. Naruto grinned from ear to ear with an evil look in his eyes all over a sudden. Then he whispered to his comrades "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Sakura was going to say something with a grin on her face, but she stopped when she heard both adults clearing their throats. The kids turned their attention back to the adults to see them staring at them intensely.

Kakashi said to them sternly "Just because we were talking, doesn't mean that we still can't hear what you're saying. Especially you, Naruto."

Naruto slightly blushed and just looked away. Shadow looked up to the sky to see the sun is going to set soon. She looked back to Kakashi so she could ask him "How far are we now?"

Kakashi looked up ahead on the road, narrowed his eye as he put a hand over his eyes to get a better look. Then he turned to the group "We're almost there."

Naruto whooped happily then ran past Kakashi and Shadow, leaving a big trail of dust behind while screaming "Ramen, here I come!"

"Naruto!" cried out Sakura in annoyance, even though it was pointless. She dropped her head low as she sighed heavily in defeat and mumbled under her breath "What an idiot…"

Kakashi said to his remaining pupil "You guys go right ahead. You earn your rest." Sakura sighed heavily in relief and Sasuke just walked ahead without saying a single word.

Sakura snapped out of her thoughts and quickly squealed "Sa-Sasuke, wait for me!" And ran after him to walk him to the Leaf Village

Once the kids were out of an earshot she asked Kakashi "Does she have a…grudge against Naruto?"

Kakashi glanced at Sakura from the corner of his eye, and then returned to Shadow. "She…just doesn't like Naruto for the moment. She finds him annoying because of his rant and stupidity." He smiled softly as he remembered those times when they became his Genin "But he has potential. I'm sure he'll grow into a splendid Leaf shinobi."

Shadow observed him for a moment and glanced back at the two Genin who were getting smaller as they walked further away from them. She asked him while slightly tilting her head to the side while eyeing on the two Genin "And what about Sasuke? Is she in love with him or something? She had been flirting with him nonstop."

Kakashi sighed heavily "Actually, yes. She has this…insane love for Sasuke. He already has a big fan girl club of him. Sometimes, I would feel sorry for the guy."

Shadow smirked behind her mask "And why is that?" Kakashi looked at her for a bit and nodded ahead as a gesture to keep walking.

As they walked, Kakashi answered her question "I wouldn't want to walk on the streets while fan girls are trailing my every track. Determining to kiss me and such." He shuddered when he remembered something from his childhood "Argh and I did have a fan girl club when I was his age. I barricade myself in my house during those…**dark **times." He shuddered once more from the memory.

Shadow smiled softly behind her mask. It had been a while since she smiled. She found Kakashi's company quite comfortable and it's quite rare for that to happen, since she doesn't usually feel entirely comfortable for one's presence when she barely knew them. She asked "I wonder how you drove them mad to have a club of you. They must have worshiped you."

Kakashi chuckled deeply as he shoved his hands in his pockets, copying her gesture "Sometimes, I would wonder that as well. I think it was the mask. It quite charms the ladies. They find me mysterious and most of them love it." He said with such pride.

Shadow rolled her eyes to the Heavens but a smile was still on her face, hidden by her black mask of hers. "And once they see your face, what then?"

"It just drove them even more insane. Sometimes, they would try to kiss me in public with my mask down. It was like a betrayal to me." He was now being dramatic but it was entertaining.

"So…your girlfriend kept trying to show everyone your face?"

Kakashi looked at her and answered "Not anymore. We broke up about four weeks ago. Sure, I she looked cute and innocent at first, but after a while it was…" he shuddered in fear "…argh, I don't want to go through that again." This time, he asked her "Now, enough about me. What about you? I hope I wasn't talking too much…"

"It's all right. I didn't think you were talking too much. I actually find you…entertaining."

"Entertaining?"

"Yes."

"Hmm…in a good or bad way?"

"In a good way, of course. If you were bad, I wouldn't have bothered to talk to you by now."

"…ouch. That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"

"Nope"

Kakashi chuckled deeply then said "Seriously. Tell me about yourself."

"Um…I…don't tell people much about me but my name. It's…difficult to talk about."

Kakashi could hear some slight sorrow in her voice as she spoke. He said to her quickly to make her feel comfortable "You don't have to tell me, I understand." He decided to bright the mood up by saying "But hey, at least I can tell you about the embarrassing moments of my childhood."

She let out a small laugh and softly smiled at Kakashi. He nearly tripped over when he saw her beautiful golden eyes, looking deeply into his single onyx one. Now, he could understand why Sakura froze up when she looked at her in the eye "Thank you for the thought, but it's not really necessary. But still, thank you. That was kind of you."

Shadow suddenly stopped when she realized that she was at the large gates of the Leaf Village. Kakashi stopped as well and was quite surprised of how time flies by so quickly by just talking with her. They were immediately greeted by the two guards. "Hey Kakashi. We were wondering how long it would take you to get here" said a man with spiky black hair, sharp eyes, and a white bandage over his nose with a small beard on his chin.

Another man appeared by his side, this man got brown hair that was covering his right eye with onyx eyes, or in his case, eye. He asked Kakashi "And who is this woman?"

She stayed silent so Kakashi introduced them "Kotetsu, Izumo, this is Shadow. She just came here to get some supplies."

Both guards glanced at each other and Kotetsu said "She can pass but she first has to see the 3rd Hokage."

"Yeah, yeah, I know that already."

Before Kakashi and Shadow walk into the village, they both said to Kakashi "See ya later!"

Kakashi waved goodbye to them as well then turned his attention back on the road ahead. Shadow looked around the village as the sky was turning orange by the sun set in the horizon. She could see the faces of the Hokage on the mountain; kids playing ninja with cardboard shurikens and plastic katanas; couples walking together in arm to arm; and villagers were dong their own business. Overall, this seemed to be the most peaceful village she had seen so far. "Shadow?" she heard her name being called by Kakashi so she turned her attention to him.

"Hmm?"

"How long are you intending to stay?"

"I don't know. I just came here to get some supplies and to see Anko again."

"Then…where will you go?"

"…Onward."

"What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, keep moving and try to find answers. That's all."

"…Is there a way we could help you with that?"

"…Perhaps."


	3. Dog Person

Shadow and Kakashi walked up the stairs of the Hokage building then straight to the office. Kakashi stopped to knock on the door and waited for a reply from inside. "Come in" they heard a hoary voice from behind the door. Kakashi opened it and stood by to let Shadow to enter first. First, she saw that it was a normal office with an old ma – as the 3rd Hokage – sitting behind his desk on a light blue arm chair while writing some paperwork with a brush and black ink. He stopped to look up and his eyes immediately glued on Shadow. Kakashi joined by her side soon enough after closing the door and he bowed to the old legendary Hokage.

Kakashi greeted him in respect "Lord Hokage."

The Hokage nodded and glanced at him "Kakashi." He returned his sharp brown eyes to Shadow who just stood there silently while analyzing the Third. "And who is this?" he asked with a hint of suspicion in his voice. Shadow can't complain about that, she would be suspicious too if she was in his shoes.

Kakashi introduced her to him "This is Shadow. I'm sure you heard the rumors of the Shadow Assassin, Lord Hokage."

"Hmm…yes I heard of that title." He arched a brow at Shadow as he slightly tilted his head to the side "But I thought you would be a man."

Shadow slightly smirked behind her mask "Don't worry. I get that a lot."

The Hokage chuckled deeply. Then he asked her "Tell me. What brings you here in the Leaf Village?"

"I'm only here to get some supplies and to say 'hello' to a friend."

"A friend?" asked the Third Hokage as he folded his hands together and rested his elbows on his desk.

Kakashi answered for her "She means Anko Mitarashi, sir."

"Oh? And how did you know Anko?"

"I've crossed some paths with her in the past. We only worked together once or twice."

"And how long was that?"

"I'm not really sure. Maybe a few months ago."

"…and now, you're in need to stay somewhere."

"Yes but only temporally."

"Hmm…" he murmured in deep thought while feeling his little sharp goatee. He pulled out a drawer to pull out some documents. He mumbled a few times while scanning through the list of apartments. Until he finally found one, he looked up with a smile "You're in luck. There is a good place for you to stay. It's a good apartment with…" he looked back to the list "…two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a small kitchen and a living room. Does that sound good to you?"

"…It's perfect."

The Hokage smiled brightly to her "Good." He put the papers down on the desk so he could grab the key of the apartment from another drawer. He held a brass key to Shadow and she took a few steps forward to get it from him. She examined the key as the Hokage said "Welcome to the Leaf Village, my dear. You may leave."

Shadow and Kakashi turned to face the door but the Hokage called out "Actually, I need to speak with you for a moment, Kakashi."

Kakashi glanced at Shadow and she nodded her head towards the door, gesturing him that she'll wait outside. Once she was out of the room, Kakashi turned to face the 3rd Hokage. "Yes, Lord Hokage?"

The Hokage folded his fingers together while looking at Kakashi darkly under his Hokage hat. "Kakashi, I want you to keep an eye on her. 24/7. Make sure she doesn't do anything that could bring destruction to the village."

Kakashi bowed his head and said "Understood."

"Good, then you may go. Please, take her to her new temporally apartment. It's in your building."

Kakashi nodded then bowed again "Good night, sir." He finally turned his back to the Third and exited the room. After he closed the door behind him, he sensed her beside so he looked to his right to see Shadow leaning against the door with her foot propped up and her hands in her pockets. She turned her head to him and he asked her "Ready to go?" Shadow nodded and pushed away from the wall to compose herself. Kakashi asked her politely "Want to eat something first before we head to your apartment?"

"Sure, what do you have in mind?"

"Um…what about some sushi and noodles?" suggested Kakashi "Although, if we go to the ramen shop, we'll probably stumble into Naruto and the others. But we can order some take-away, if you like?"

"…I'm going to have to take the 'take-away' plan."

Kakashi chuckled deeply and mentioned her to go first towards the staircase "Ladies first."

Shadow smirked softly and obliged of going down the stairs then soon enough, Kakashi joined her.

* * *

><p>Shadow held her take-away sushi and a bowl of instant ramen in a plastic bag while following Kakashi to her new temporally apartment. He also bought some sushi take-away himself and a can of bean soup but that's about it. Shadow could see the stairs starting to appear in the sky as it darkened and she could also see a tall building which they're heading at. "Is that where I'm living?" asked Shadow.<p>

"Yeah, and," he smiled at her over his shoulder "I'm also your neighbor so…welcome to the neighborhood."

Shadow glanced at him from the side and said "Thank you. You've been too kind to me. How can you tell that I'm not just here under disguise to bring destruction to this village? Why do you trust me this much?"

Kakashi glanced at her with his only exposed eye. To be truly honest, he had no idea why but there was something about her that made his guard down but not entirely. He was slightly hypnotized when he saw her golden eyes and he suddenly blatted out without knowing "It's because of your eyes…"

Shadow arched a brow at him under her hood "My eyes?" Kakashi went a bit rigid as he snapped out of his thoughts. He tried to remember what he just said but Shadow told him what it was. She asked him once more "What about my eyes?"

Kakashi shook his head a bit to get his mind going. Honestly, what's happening to him? Usually, he would be good around women, but this one seemed…different. He laughed nervously as he rubbed the back of his head "Wh-What? Did I say something about your eyes? And…what were we talking about?"

Shadow arched her brow even further and she felt slightly uncomfortable now. "…okay…" she mumbled then walked a bit faster. Entirely not impress anymore.

Kakashi whined deeply in his mind and asked himself *What the hell is wrong with you, Hatake! Now, she thinks you're a bloody idiot!* He take in a deep breath to calm his mind *All right, Hatake. Calm down. Flirt a little; make sure that she doesn't bloody think that you're a blooming idiot! Shit, I don't want her to see me like Gai! That would be a nightmare!* He quickly caught up the pace with her so he could walk beside her. He quickly apologized "I-I'm sorry about before, I was just…wondering if your eyes are truly genuine." But he was screaming mentally to himself *What kind of a question is that! You ARE a bloody idiot, Hatake!*

Shadow looked at him weirdly and stopped. He stopped as well and asked "Is…there something wrong?"

She narrowed her golden eyes at him and it sent him cold shivers up in his spine, and not in a good way. "Stop the bullshit. What's going on with you? You're acting…**different**…" she was wary with her words. Can't blame her for that, Kakashi would be feeling the same if he was in her shoes.

"I-I…um…" Kakashi was absolutely speechless, this is the first time he was actually speechless in front of a woman. Usually, he would be so confident that women would be dying to get a date with him. Now, he felt like he was in the middle of the sea of nowhere and he was sinking, fast!

Shadow was getting quite impatient and annoyed with his stuttering and shyness. She liked men with some backbone…that's a lie; she like a lot of backbone, not the shying type and Kakashi over here was getting himself signed up in her 'none-dated' list. Shadow wanted to get out, and fast so she held her hand up to silence him. He obeyed and she said to him "Thanks for what've you done for me so far, Kakashi Hatake. But now, I think I can find my way from here." She dropped her hand to her side and quickly turned to walk up the flight of stairs.

Kakashi watched her from below as she walked up the flight of stairs then she disappeared when she walked deeper into the opened corridors. When he was certain that he was absolutely alone, he went to a nearby lamp post and banged his forehead against it. Cursing to himself of how he made a fool of himself in front of a…special woman.

Once he was done punishing himself, he sighed heavily and walked up the flight of stairs to get to his own apartment. After walking up like a billion stairs, he stopped at the same level that Shadow went and walked down the open corridor while passing countless doors. He slowed down when he saw Shadow's apartment door but he quickly quickened his pace to get to his. He already embarrassed himself for one day, maybe he'll make it up to her tomorrow. If he'll get the opportunity, of course.

Kakashi stopped in front of his apartment door, pulled out his keychain with a small Pakkun keychain attached to it. When Pakkun – one of his loyal summoning dogs – found out that there was a small key chain of him, he went optimistic and proud of himself, as if he was a big Hollywood star. It ticked the other loyal hunting dogs off for a…long time. Most of the time, Kakashi would have to break up the dog fights – in that case, just arguing since they can talk and would prefer that than using their fangs and claws – to get things under control.

When Kakashi opened the door to his apartment, he was greeted by darkness until he flicked the lights on by the side of the door. When the lights were on, he immediately saw his group of hounds, waiting for him as usual. "Hey Kakashi, what took you so long?" asked Pakkun as he rested on the big dog's head.

Kakashi put the bag of food on the counter then pulled his mask and headband down. He answered them while ruffling his silver hair to make it even messier and his Sharingan eye closed. He answered Pakkun "I got a little…delayed." Pakkun arched a brow at him while the other dogs either whimpered or tilted their heads in confusion. Pakkun then started to sniff towards Kakashi and he arched a brow at them. "What?"

"I smell another scent from you…" Pakkun sniffed once more with suspicion "…and it smells like Jasmine. You found a new girlfriend or something? Is that why you were late?"

Kakashi went rigid for a moment and immediately protested "No! It is from a woman I met recently and no, she is not my girlfriend!"

Pakkun looked a bit…surprised by Kakashi's protest. Usually he would be calm and cool. Now it was the opposite. Pakkun said "Calm down, Kakashi. It's not like I'm going to bite if you said that you do have a girlfriend." His face dropped with a deep frown "Unless she hates dogs."

"Um…I'm not really sure if she does like d—Oi! Why does it matter!" Kakashi asked frantically. Pakkun simply shrugged his shoulders and Kakashi anime sweat-dropped.


	4. Reunion

**Improved Kakashi love story from the old one from three or four years ago. Please give me some feedback to encourage me to type more and faster. I'll be back with my other stories soon enough (I hope). **

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><p>Shadow opened her eyes and yawned loudly in the cold air of her bedroom. She stretched her arms in the air as she yawned then sat up properly and rubbed her eyes to keep them open. She looked at the closed curtain window and took a glimpse outside by pushing the curtain a bit. She saw the sun barely rising from the horizon and she sighed softly.<p>

She shifted on her bed so she could sit on the edge of it and pushed some of her black hair away from her bare face. *Time to get up…argh, I hate early mornings.* she thought with a small groan. She finally got out of bed and started to do her morning routine. Afterwards, she walked into the kitchen while wearing some comfortable clothes of her uniform. She went to the fridge to take out some left over from the take-away last night. She didn't eat much from last night. However, she couldn't stop thinking about that weird moment with Kakashi.

After warming up the remaining leftover with the micro-wave, she ate her food in silence until she heard her front door being knocked. She stopped chewing for a moment then swallowed it with a big gulp. She shouted to the other side of the door "Who is it!"

"It's Kakashi!"

"Kakashi…?" Shadow mumbled with an arched brow. She put her food back on the counter and walked to the front door. She opened the door, but not much. Just enough to show an eye to him. "What do you want, Kakashi?" she asked him rather coldly.

Kakashi just smiled at her behind his dark blue mask and said "I just wanted to say 'good morning' to you. And may need some help to find the supplies you need. I also may help you to find Anko Mitarashi."

"…I don't need your help, Kakashi. I've been on my own for a long time and I think I can find what I need on my own. Good day, Kakashi." Before he could say another word, she closed the door to his face.

Kakashi sighed heavily as he shook his head "This woman is nearly impossible…"

"I heard that, Hatake!" shouted Shadow in annoyance and he jumped in surprise. He quickly rushed down the open corridor to the stair well; just want to quickly get away from Shadow as soon as possible.

Shadow sighed heavily in annoyance. She felt like she wanted to strangle him to death if that will shut him up! Yesterday, when she first met him, she thought he'll be fine until he started to act weird when she asked him of why he trusted her so much when he barely knew her. She walked back into the kitchen to eat the two last bites of her left-over then throw them into the small dust bin. Then she went to her bedroom to put on her entire outfit.

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><p>3 hours later, she managed to find some supplies that she needed and she wanted to find them as soon as possible so she could get out of this village. She's been receiving many stares from the villages whenever they're around her and she hated that feeling when she was being watched. But she's kinda gotten used to it by now. She was looking through a collection of daggers; she always got a thing about weapons. You know how women are obsessive about their clothes; well weapons are like that to Shadow.<p>

Then she heard her name being called from outside the shop "Hey! Shadow!" She sighed heavily, since she knew who it was. She turned around to see Naruto waving at her frantically while his teammates were sighing and shook their head while their mentor – Kakashi – was standing behind them calmly with his hands in his pockets, but Shadow could see that he wasn't…happy to see her.

She sighed heavily then walked out of the shop. She waved at them as she approached. "Hey…"

Naruto seemed very thrilled to see her and Sakura just smiled kindly at her. "Hey Shadow, what have you been doing!" asked the blonde headed Genin.

"I'm just shopping for supplies. Nothing big."

"Oh, and after you're done getting your supplies, what then?"

"Then I'm going to have a small chat with Anko for a bit."

"And then you'll leave?"

"That's right."

Sakura hesitated to ask Shadow "Um…where are you originally from, Shadow."

Shadow hesitated to answer that question "…I'm from the Village Hidden in the Dark. But it was destroyed a long time ago…" She could already hear the faint screams and could remember the poor villagers' bloody faces while they were in pain. It entirely scarred a part of her soul that she had to abandon her home without a choice. To see her home in flames and the sky was red as blood. Sometimes, she wondered if it was a terribly nightmare.

Kakashi could see her being in deep thought then he said to his Genin "You guys head to the D-rank missions first. I'll catch up with you later."

"Bu-!" Naruto was cut off when Sakura quickly grabbed the front of his collar and dragged him away from the two adults with Sasuke.

Once Kakashi was certain that they were out of hearing, he took two steps towards Shadow and placed a hand on her shoulder. She slightly flinched from his touch and quickly looked up to his eye as she snapped out of her thoughts. "I've heard what happened to your village. And I'm terribly sorry for your loss."

Shadow felt something warm in her chest and it was something she felt vulnerable to it. And she hated it. She quickly grabbed his wrist of the hand that was resting on her shoulder and she twisted it which made Kakashi to groan in pain. Shadow glared at him under her hood "I don't need your pity, Hatake. I'm not weak. I've been alone for a long time but I know how to take care of myself. So, don't get all sympathetic on me." She released his wrist and he glared at her with his single eye while feeling his wrist with his other hand.

"Fine, if you don't want my sympathy. That's all right with me." He said with some venom. Now, he was giving up of making up to her of his stupidity last night. Now, he wanted nothing but to strangle the woman to death. He tried to be nice to her but instead of being thanked, he was being abused. *I swear, this woman is crazy!* he thought angrily.

They both got into a glaring contest and the people around them were getting queasy and quickly deserted the street if a fight was going to be taken place. Shadow already taken out two throwing knives as Kakashi brought out a kunai from his weapon pouch. Until, someone budged in.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked a deep voice from the side.

That broke up the glaring contest and they both looked at the side to see a tall man with black hair spiking to the back, a black pointy goatee, wearing a Jounin uniform and a cigarette hanging from the corner of his lips.

Kakashi mumbled "Asuma…" He sighed in relief *Well, at least he's here. I can't believe I almost dare to fight with this woman.* He glanced at her from the corner of his eye *Who knows what she's capable of.* Kakashi could see the villagers around them were either disappointed that there will be no ninja fight or were relieved that there will be no fight at all.

Asuma approached them as he got his hands in his pockets and he greeted Kakashi with a nod "Good to see you again, Kakashi."

Kakashi greeted back as he put his kunai away "Nice to see you, too."

Asuma turned his attention to Shadow "I'm afraid I don't know you. But I heard a rumor of a woman who believed to be the Shadow Assassin. Are you her?"

Shadow nodded and Asuma held a hand out for her to shake. She accepted it and said "Nice to meet you…Asuma?" She guessed his name to recall what Kakashi mumbled before.

Asuma grinned widely from ear to ear "That's right." They both pulled away from their handshake and Asuma said to Kakashi "Kakashi, you should know better than to challenge someone like her. It's not very nice." While saying that, he was smirking and Kakashi knew why.

Kakashi groaned in annoyance and said to Asuma flatly "I know I may have…carried away a bit."

Asuma arched a brow but he continued to smirk "A bit?" he scoffed. He turned to say to Shadow "I'm sorry for my scarecrow friend over here. It's not usual that he would easily lose his cool."

Kakashi protested "Hey!"

Asuma shrugged his shoulders "What? You did." He asked Shadow with a genuine smile "So, what brings you here to the Leaf?"

"I'm only here to get some supplies and to meet Anko."

"Anko? Well, you're in luck. I just saw her not 3 minutes ago. She's at the Dango shop."

Kakashi slightly scoffed "Typical."

Asuma ignored that and offered Shadow "If you want, I can take you to her now."

Shadow nodded "I would like that, thank you."

She walked past Kakashi and joined to Asuma's side. They both walked away towards the Dango shop, leaving Kakashi alone to himself. He was staring at the two in shock with his jaw dropped then slapped his forehead and slid it down to his chin "You got to be kidding me!" he groaned deeply as he rolled his eye to the sky. He was going to go after them, but then remembered about his Genin. *Right, I have some D-rank missions with the Genin. Damn it…* he thought then he turned to the direction of where his Genin left while still feeling very annoyed with Shadow haunting his mind; especially, her memorable golden eyes.

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><p>After a while, Shadow looked over her shoulder and was certain that Kakashi wasn't following them. She let out a small sigh of relief and Asuma arched a brow at her. "What?"<p>

She glanced at him under her hood then answered "I was just making sure that he wasn't following us. That's all."

Asuma asked "Who? Kakashi?" Shadow nodded. He asked her "Why? What did he do?"

"…He just ticks me off. When I first met him I thought he was all right, but then last night – out of nowhere – he started to be like all shy and...a little idiotic."

Asuma let out a scoffing laugh "Kakashi? Being shy and being a little idiotic? It's hard for me to imagine Kakashi like that."

"And why is that?"

"Kakashi and I have been friends for a very long time. And from all my years of knowing, he would be cool, sly, confident and…kinda like a womanizer."

"A womanizer?"

"Yeah, nearly every woman in the village is obsessed with Kakashi. Some are willing to kill to marry him, seriously."

"Oh? And why is he single this long?"

"Well…I think he's just trying to find the One."

"You think?"

"Yeah, but I'm not really sure if he's ready to settle down or what. Kakashi and I don't talk about this kind of thing, much."

"Well…that's my point, Asuma. And now, I'm trying to avoid him so that man won't end up being dead by my hands."

Asuma chuckled and said "Don't worry; you can count on me if you're on the edge of rampage over that darn scarecrow."

Shadow smiled at him softly behind her black mask "I'll appreciate that very much, Asuma. Thanks again."

They both stopped when they reached the entrance of the Dango shop and they saw Anko sitting right outside on the bench while eating some dango, a plate of more dangos beside her and she was holding a can of red-bean soup. She chewed a piece of her dango happily and said to herself proudly "Hmm-mmm! Nothing beats the taste of sweet dango!"

Shadow smirked in amusement then walked approached her. Anko stopped when she saw her and she nearly dropped her stick of two dangos to the floor as she stared at Shadow surprisingly. Shadow greeted her "Hi Anko, long time no see."

Her eyes darkened but a sinister smirk was forming in her lips "Yeah, it's been a while, Shadow…" Both of them stared each other as tension was building around them. Asuma stared between the two women while feeling a little queasy.

*Okay, this doesn't look good…* Asuma thought as he continued to look between them.

In a flash, Shadow got her katana out and blocked Anko's kunai attacked. Everyone immediately froze in their spot when they saw it and they stared at the scene in fear and shock. The two women continued to look at each other daringly and Anko said to her "How brave of you to show your face here, Shadow."

"Hmf, I'm not afraid of your threats, Anko. I thought we establish that from the last time we met."

Asuma was going to end this and started to walk towards them to break them apart before things get bloody. But he stopped when Anko suddenly hugged Shadow tightly and she hugged back. "It's really good to see you, Shadow" said Anko with a grin.

Shadow smiled softly "It's good to see you, too."

When they pulled away, Asuma was stunned and asked them frantically "Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on!"

Both women looked at him and Anko said "Shadow and I are friends! What's the matter with that? We haven't seen each other for months!"

"Yeah, I know but what the hell was with the duel tension before!"

Shadow explained as she put her black katana on her back "It's our way of saying 'hello', Asuma."

"I wouldn't say 'hello' to a friend like a death charge."

"True, but that's our way, Asuma. Deal with it!" said Anko as she set her hands on her waist while narrowing her eyes at him. She turned her attention to Shadow "So, how have you been? I heard that your head has the highest price in the bingo book. What the hell did you do?"

"Ah, you know. Kill here and there. Pissed off a lot of people. You know, the usual life as an Assassin."

Anko giggled and proudly said out loud "That's my girl!"

Asuma just stared at the two women in disbelief and mumbled under his breath "Sometimes, I can't understand women these days…"


	5. Swear

Some reviews would be nice...TT_TT

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><p>Anko turned to Asuma and said "Don't you have something else to do, Asuma?"<p>

"Well…not rea-!" he was cut off when he saw a death glare from Anko. Obviously wanted to be alone with Shadow. Asuma immediately retreated back to his words with a force grin "Actually, there is something I've been meaning to do! Oh, look at the time! I got to go!" He quickly did a hand sign and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

Shadow chuckled and said to Anko "You didn't need to scare him away, Anko. I think he would understand if you had told him the truth."

"I know but I would rather scare them off than to tell them off."

Shadow chuckled again then sat on the bench which she sat down before. Anko joined her, returning to the same spot and grabbed her two remaining dango then passed one to Shadow. Shadow accepted her offer and hooked a finger of her black mask. Anko slightly flinched in surprise and asked Shadow "Are you sure, Shadow? I mean, there is a dark corner inside the shop to give you some privacy."

Shadow smiled at her for her concern "No, it's all right. I need to breath in some fresh air anyway and I only put my mask when I'm around strangers. Since you're my friend, I'll make an exception." Anko watched as Shadow pulled her mask down to her chin and pushed her hood down as well to release her black long hair free. She let out a long sigh of relief and took a bite of dango. She stopped when she suddenly heard some plates being dropped to the floor and nearly all the men got their jaw dropped, eyes widened and have some nosebleeds as they stared at Shadow.

Anko glared at them then shouted "You know staring is impolite!" The men quickly looked away but not without their faces turning red, some even fainted from losing too much blood from their nosebleed. Anko turned to the exposed face Shadow as she took another bite of her dango. "Now I can see why you wear that mask. You make the men fall unconscious without lifting a single finger."

Shadow slightly blushed at her comment then she swallowed. She covered half of her face with her hand "Oh, then I apologize." She was going to bring her mask up again but Anko grabbed her wrist quickly.

She said with a playful grin "I was joking, Shadow! Sheesh, you need to know when you hear a joke or not!"

She smiled softly and put her hand down as Anko released it "I'll work on that."

Suddenly a waiter came to them while holding two plates of six dangos each. He said "These were ordered by the two gents under the red umbrella." He looked at Shadow's face that was looking at something else and he blushed.

Anko glared at him and said "Well? Are you going to do some trick or what? You know, the food is not going to move itself!" The waiter flinched from Anko's voice and quickly walked away from them with his face red. Anko groaned as she shook her head with disapproval then asked Shadow "Men these days, sometimes I wonder if their men or just jerks looking for some tits and ass."

Shadow smirked at her "Some men are different, Anko. Not all of them are bad."

Anko smirked at her "I guess your right, but it's hard to find the right man these days." She quickly finished the dango of her stick then moved to a new one without hesitation. Shadow chuckled deeply then took the last bite of her third dango.

After a while, Anko managed to finish the plate of six dangos in 5 minutes. But she's still hungry so she glanced at Shadow's untouched one. So she asked her "Are you going to eat yours?"

Shadow turned to smile at her softly then pushed the plate of dangos towards her "Here, you can have them all."

"Thanks!" she said happily then started to eat them in a flash. Shadow watched her friend eat in amusement. How this woman can eat so much dango endlessly? She'll never know.

Suddenly a man approached them with spiky brown hair, dark brown eyes and wearing a Chuunin uniform. Anko glared as the man approached and he was looking more forward to Shadow than to Anko. "I'm terribly sorry, but I can't help to say that you're an incredible beauty. Are you free tonight?" he asked with such confidence.

Anko rolled her eyes as she slapped her hand on her forehead "Oh brother…" she mumbled miserably.

Shadow glanced at Anko then turned her attention back to the smirking man "I'm not interest, sorry." She dug her hands in her pockets and put the money on the bench. She stood up and said to Anko "Come on, Anko. Let's take a walk." She was going to pull her mask up to cover her face but her wrist was grabbed by the man.

"Hey, just come with me tonight. I'll make it worth your while." He wiggled his brow at her but she only looked at him emotionless and slightly disgusted.

Anko growled as she said to him "Do you have any idea who you're messing with? I would let go of her, if I were you pal."

The guy's smirk dropped and was replaced by a deep frown. He turned to glare at Anko "Hey, this is none of your business, you snake-bitch!"

He was suddenly kneed in the groin and he bend over as he coughed in pain. Soon he got his hair pulled back from his bending position and was soon punched in the face hard by Shadow. It sent him flying and he skid on the floor. After he stopped, he formed into a human ball as he covered his bleeding face.

Shadow glared at him hard and growled "You dare call my friend like that again and I won't hesitate to kill you." The whimpering man stared at her shockingly from his poor position and she only scoffed at him. "Tch, weakling…"she mumbled under her breath. She turned to Anko who was smirking at the fallen man. "You okay?" she asked with such sincere.

Anko turned her attention to Shadow "I'm okay, Shadow. Really. But you didn't need to punch the poor man. I could have done that myself."

Shadow chuckled and said "Well, next time I'll let you punch him."

"It's a deal."

Shadow pulled her mask up but she let her hood down. She nodded towards the road "Come on, let's walk a bit. We got a lot of catching up to do." Anko smirked but started to walk down the road by Shadow's side.

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><p>Shadow had no idea how long she had been talking with Anko, but it was a good feeling to talk to a friend. Anko is one of the closest friends she got so far. Long ago, her close friends in the Dark village were killed and she was the only survivor, unfortunately. Anko asked Shadow "So, what really brings you here to the Leaf?"<p>

"Like I said before, I wanted to get some supplies and see you."

"Come on, Shadow. There's got to be a better reason."

"I'm telling the truth, Anko. You know I can't stay in one place too long. I don't want your village to suffer because of me."

"…but we can protect you, Shadow. We could help you with your problems if you just open yourself to us. We look after one another; we do not abandon our own."

"…So what are you saying? You're saying that I…should stay? Here in the Leaf?"

Anko shrugged her shoulders "Yeah? Why not? Imagine the fun that we would be doing in the future if you live here."

Shadow chuckled "I-I'm sorry, Anko. But I do not want to make the Hokage angry with your childish pranks."

"Boo…you're no fun." Shadow stopped when she realized that she was in a clear field, but that's not what stopped her. The three kids and Kakashi were the ones that stopped her tracks. Anko arched a brow at Shadow then followed her gaze. She grinned widely and turned her eyes back to her "What's the matter? Scarecrow got your tongue?"

Shadow softly glared at her from the corner of her eyes and said "Don't say things like that, Anko. Please. Kakashi and I are…not going so well at the moment."

Anko's grin dropped and she tilted her head to the side while looking at her curiously "What do you mean?"

"I mean, when we're together. All I want to do with him is to just get away from him or tear him apart."

"Why? What did he do?"

"…He got all sympathetic on me. It made me feel vulnerable and I don't like it. I don't like it when I'm treated like a weakling or emotional."

Anko made a wincing sound and shook her head towards Kakashi. "Oh…bad move, Hatake. Bad move." She sighed heavily "So I guess you don't want to go over there to say 'hello'?"

Shadow arched a brow "You think?" she asked her rather flatly. Obvious not interested.

Before they left, Shadow got a glimpse of Naruto seeing her and he quickly shouted as he waved his hand frantically at her "Hey! Shadow!"

Shadow grumbled with a groan "Speak of the devil. That kid's loud…"

She turned to face them, sadly, but then Anko said to Shadow quickly "I…have to go, Shadow. Bye!"

"Anko, n-!" she was cut off when Anko quickly disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Shadow cursed under her breath as the group was approaching her. Well, Naruto was running towards her like a stampede.

"Hey Shado-!" Naruto was cut off when he suddenly tripped and skid on the floor until Shadow's feet. No doubt he got dirt in his mouth.

His teammates sighed heavily and Sakura mumbled "Idiot" under her breath while rubbing her forehead to control herself from strangling Naruto to death.

She arched a brow at him and asked "Um…are you okay?"

Naruto groaned deeply then lifted his face up and spat dirt out of his mouth. He groaned while looking disgusted "Argh…this sucks…"

Shadow let out a small chuckle at the whiskered boy "You're very amusing, Naruto. Although, I've never seen a ninja…tripping before."

Naruto blushed and quickly composed himself from the ground. He stabbed himself with his thumb and said to her with pride "I'm not going to make a fool of myself again! I swear it!"

Shadow chuckled once more and ruffled his blonde spiky hair "You got a big spirit, I'll give you credit for that." When they others came, she nodded to them as her way of greeting "Hello again."

Sakura bowed her head to her "Hello again, Shadow."

Sasuke didn't say a word and just murmured to her as he looked away. Kakashi was slightly glaring at her with his single eye with his hands shoved in his pockets. Shadow returned the gesture and she growled softly "What do you want, Hatake?"

The Genin looked confused for a moment and looked between the two adults as they were back into their glaring contest. They had absolutely had no idea what made them like this. At first, they were talking like normal people, enjoying each other's company. But now, they're like enemies, kind of similar to Sasuke and Naruto.

Naruto asked "Hey, what's going on?" His question managed to snap their glaring contest and they remembered that the Genin were there.

Kakashi forced a smile at them behind his dark blue mask and said "I-It's nothing, Naruto. Hey, we had a long day. I'll treat us all with ramen, does that sound good?"

Naruto cheered loudly as he punched his fist into the empty air "Yes! Ramen!"

Sakura sighed heavily and mumbled "Do we always have to eat ramen…?"

Sasuke just stayed quiet but Shadow could see that he wasn't happy. Not that she never seen him happy before, but he was definitely frowning. Kakashi said to his Genin "Why don't you guys go up ahead. I…have to speak with Shadow for a moment."

The Genin looked at their mentor suspiciously then Sakura turned to Shadow "I hope you can join us, Shadow. It was nice meeting you again."

"You too." Shadow watched as Sakura grabbed her teammate's wrist and dragged them away from the two adults to the Ramen shop while Sasuke was complaining about 'let me go. I'm not a doll.' But Naruto wasn't complaining at all.

Once they were gone, Shadow turned to Kakashi "Now, what do you want?"

Kakashi sighed heavily and asked "Can you at least TRY to be nice to me? Sure, you saved my ass before but that doesn't mean that you can push me around like a rag doll."

Shadow arched a brow at him "Why is that you care about what I think about you? We're not going to see each other again after I'm gone tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? That soon?" asked Kakashi.

"Yes, I've got my supplies and I've met my friend. Now, there's nothing here holding me back to leave so…"

Kakashi narrowed his eye at her; he could tell that she was hiding something from him. So he asked her "What is it that you're not telling me, Shadow?"

Shadow glared at him under her hood and her golden eyes were quite terrifying to look but Kakashi bravely look back at them. "It's none of your damn business, Hatake…" she growled so deeply that it was near inhuman.

After a while of just glaring at each other to death, Kakashi let out a heavy sigh of defeat. "Fine…you win." He turned his back to her "But I'll find out, eventually."

Shadow could feel her blood boiling in rage as Kakashi walked away from her. She finally couldn't take it anymore, she quickly grabbed three throwing knives and threw it at him but he quickly spun around to deflect them with a kunai that he quickly pulled out from his weapon pouch. Shadow said to him "You really have an annoying talent for getting into my nerves! Congratulations, you won yourself a prize! It's been a long time since someone ticked me off like this!"

Kakashi glared at her "Shadow, you are the first absolute craziest woman I've ever met! Just because I made myself look like an idiot that night doesn't mean that I am!"

"Yeah but you treated me like I was a weakling! I hated when people look down at me!"

"Is that what this is all about? God, this is the most ridiculous shitest spineless excuse I've ever heard!"

"Just shut up already, Hatake!" She charged towards him while pulling her black katana out and Kakashi went into fighting stance.

He groaned as he grabbed his headband "Fine, you ask for it…" He pulled his headband up properly and opened his Sharingan eye. That didn't cease her to slow down as she charged and then she suddenly disappeared in a flash.

Kakashi went tense and looked around in his surroundings while holding the kunai tightly. Then he quickly jumped away when Shadow tried to use the **Head-Hunter jutsu** underground. She merged out of the ground and quickly summoned up some lightning around her arm while holding her black katana. "Oh, I'm going to enjoy this…" she growled with a wicked grin behind her black mask. Her lightning technique spread and she was going to charge to him once again.

Kakashi groaned deeply and quickly summoned up his Lightning Blade *I don't have much of a choice…Damn, I think she really wants to kill me!* he thought. Kakashi was going to charge but suddenly a large familiar toad jump in the way, blocking their path from killing each other.

"Whoa, what the blaze is going on around here!" asked the man who summoned the toad and he was sitting on its head. Shadow immediately stopped and she cancelled her lightning technique.

"J-Jiraiya sensei?" asked Shadow as she stared at him surprisingly.

Kakashi gawked as his Lightning Blade was cancelled. "S-Sensei!"

Jiraiya grinned down at Shadow widely "My, you've grown into a fine woman, Shadow! Although, you shouldn't cover up that pretty face of yours! But it makes you mysterious and nothing else drives a man crazy but a mysterious woman!"

Shadow scratched the side of her head nervously and said to Jiraiya "Forgive me; I guess I went over the line this time."

Kakashi sighed heavily, closed his Sharingan eye and pull the headband down to cover it; since it was draining his chakra. Jiraiya's toad disappeared and he landed on his feet easily on the grassy ground while smirking towards Shadow. "Damn, it's been a while. Hasn't it?"

Shadow nodded in agreement then put her katana on her back. "I don't know what would have happened if you didn't show up, Jiraiya sensei."

Kakashi screamed mentally *We would have killed each other! God! What was I thinking! Did I WANT to fight her in the first place! Why can't I keep my damn cool around this woman!*

Jiraiya turned his attention to Kakashi "And you. What were you thinking facing my 1# favourite pupil? She's stronger than she looks, Kakashi. Don't mess with her, seriously. You could have died by her hands, even if her attention was to only injure you."

Kakashi stared at him wryly then glanced at Shadow who looked back to her calm self. Good, let's stay that way for the moment. Kakashi doesn't know if the Hokage will be please if he heard of this. He would probably give Kakashi a big lecture of not keeping himself under control. But strangely it was hard for him whenever he's around this woman.

Jiraiya asked his former pupil "Now, what's going on with you? It's strange seeing you here in the Leaf. I thought you weren't staying in villagers for more than a day."

Shadow sighed then answered "Well, I needed to resupply some things and I needed to see an old friend. But I'm leaving tomorrow morning."

"Oh, that's a shame. I was hoping to get hang some time with you. You know, catch things up. Just stay for another day or two, then you may go to…wherever you want to go."

Shadow rubbed the back of her neck nervously "I don't know, Jiraiya-sensei. I'm not sure if that's a good idea…I don't want to risk the lives in this village."

Jiraiya's body went tense and he walked closer to her. When he was near her, he asked "Is it **him** again? He found you already?"

Shadow nodded gravely "Yes but he doesn't know where I am yet, I hope. But I need to keep moving as soon as possible." She slightly glared at Kakashi over the side of Jiraiya "And besides, I can't stand him."

Jiraiya arched a brow "What?" He looked over his shoulder to Kakashi then returned his eyes to her "You mean Kakashi?" She nodded. He suddenly started to laugh hysterically and it made the two adults to jump in surprise.

Shadow crossed her arms on her chest while glaring up at him; since he was pretty tall. "It's not funny, sensei."

Jiraiya's laugh ceased and he teased her "Awe, is my little Shadow being…" he whispered to her "…_shy_? By a certain scarecrow?"

Shadow couldn't fight back the big blush and she felt her face on fire. It's a good thing her black mask was covering most part of her face but since Jiraiya was close, he could see the redness in her face. That made his grin to widen like a dirty fox – scratch that – toad!

Shadow grumbled as she looked away from him "I'm not being…shy." She said the word with so much venom but he continued to grin at her like a lunatic. She jerked her head to him and stabbed her finger "This better not get into those stupid books of yours, Jiraiya-sensei!"

Jiraiya chuckled like a naughty man then he snapped his fingers as he remembered something. "Oh! I almost forgot!" He quickly dug his hand in his robes and pulled out a small book with the cover dark blue. "Here's the new season of Make-Out Paradise. Now, I want your honest opinion after you read it." Shadow grinned widely and nodded 'thanks' to Jiraiya.

On the other hand, Kakashi got his jaw dropped as he saw the new season book. To him, it was like a valuable idol and he would _love_ to have that in his collection. But the problem is that Shadow was having it and – let's face it – they're not going well together. Then he swore to himself while looking up to the Heavens *I swear, I going to get that book in my hands! Even if it means stealing that book from Shadow! But how the hell am I going to get that book without her noticing it!*


	6. Dying

Very disappointed when I had few reviews. I'm quite sad...

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><p>The next day, Jiraiya had to go somewhere to do his ridiculous 'research' but Shadow knew better that he was just being a big perverted toad as he is. But she has to admit that he has some gifted talent for making good books as it is popular in the adult world. She was sitting on a high branch of a tree in the Training Field. She was mostly hidden by the bushes of the tree while a leg was hanging from the edge of the branch, swinging back and forth mindlessly as she was reading the new addition book.<p>

Two minutes later, she said as she turned to the next page "You need to control your breathing, Hatake. I you sure that you're a ninja?" she asked too simply as the Copy-Cat ninja was right above her, hanging upside down with his chakra holding him up by a branch above Shadow.

Kakashi cursed mentally and mumbled something inaudible but she didn't care. Kakashi walked a bit further, canceled his chakra and landed easily on the branch that Shadow was sitting on. Shadow asked without lifting her eyes from the page "What do you want, Hatake?"

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her as he was in a crouching position and he rested his elbows on his bended knees. "Why are you calling me by my last name? Do you really hate me that much?"

"Well…you pretty much annoy me. So…yeah."

Kakashi groaned softly with a deep frown behind his dark blue mask. "What the hell did I make you hate me so much?"

"I don't hate you. I just don't like you. Those two are entirely different. And from what I heard," she slightly glanced at him from the corner of the book "aren't you supposed to be a genius?"

Kakashi could feel his blood boiling in anger as she went back to reading the book. The book he wanted to get his hands on for hours since she got it from Jiraiya. But Shadow held that book for nearly 24/7 and it's quite hard for Kakashi to get it. Kakashi took in some deep breathes to calm himself or else he would be tackling the woman down and strangle her to death then just take the book himself.

Shadow was feeling quite annoyed when Kakashi was just watching her like a hawk, she knew that he had been watching her for nearly 24/7 since she got here. However, he tried his best to hide and to hide his chakra from her, but she could sense him too easily. She asked him with a small growl "What do you want, Hatake? I'm not going to ask you again."

Kakashi frown deepened and he mumbled under his breath "If you're curious, I'm under orders to watch over you till you leave."

"Hmf, not surprising. Now can you leave me alone to my reading?"

"Hmm…no."

Shadow slightly glared at him from the corner of the book then returned her eyes to the book "If you insist on being ignored for hours, then be my guest, Hatake."

Hatake grumbled something inaudible but he made himself comfortable on the branch so he was sitting on the edge with his legs hanging. He didn't have anything to do because – being such an idiot AGAIN – to leave his books at home because he was in more attention of reading the book that is in her hands! Two: It's the Team 7's day off; today is a Saturday.

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><p>Kakashi had been twirling his kunai around mindlessly to try to pass the time. It had been three hours and not once Shadow made a sudden move but moving the page. It was taunting Kakashi miserably because he kept wondering what the new addition is about and he would <em>kill<em> to know what she's reading.

Kakashi glanced at Shadow who got her nose buried in her book and he could tell that she is only half-way through the book. On the other hand, Shadow could tell that he's _dying_ from boredom. She smirked softly behind her mask as she continued to hear the swiftness of the kunai that he had been playing around for the past three hours.

She couldn't help to say to him "What's the matter, Hatake? Are you _dying_ to read this book?"

Shadow's smirk widened when she heard the swiftness of the kunai immediately stopped and could feel Kakashi's body went tense. Everything was absolutely quiet but the sound of crows hawking while flying pass by. She could also feel his stare at her but – no doubt – that he's mostly eyeing on the book that is in her hand. Then, he finally spoke "Would you lend me the book if I ask you?"

"…maybe."

"'Maybe'?"

"Yeah, maybe."

"Why 'maybe'?"

"Because it's just maybe, Hatake."

Kakashi groaned softly and deeply in annoyance. He had no idea how much longer he can last with this woman. Suddenly they heard a familiar loud shout from below "Hey!" They both looked down to see Asuma waving at them below.

"Hey Asuma!" greeted Kakashi. Shadow just nodded to him then returned to her book. Asuma glanced at her then mentioned Kakashi to come down here. Kakashi glanced at Shadow but she seemed to be busier reading her book than anything else. It's quite funny because she reminded of him whenever he was reading his books while doing boring missions with the Genin.

Kakashi easily slid off the branch and landed on the ground softly. Then, he asked Asuma who was lighting a new cigarette "Troubles?"

After Asuma lighted his cigarette he answered Kakashi after blowing some smoke "Actually, my Dad sent me to fetch you two. Apparently, he has a small mission for you."

Kakashi gawked at him with his jaw dropped; stretching his dark blue mask. "You have GOT to be f**king kidding me…"

Asuma arched a brow at him "Why? You have something against her?"

Kakashi closed his mouth and sighed heavily as he rested his hands on the side of his hips. Then he confessed "I CAN'T stand that woman. She drives me…insane!" he was saying it quite harshly but softly so Shadow doesn't hear them.

Unfortunately, she does and when she heard what Kakashi said about her, she couldn't help but to feel very irritated. And felt more disliking him.

Asuma asked him "And why is that?"

Kakashi glanced up at her then he groaned deeply as he looked back to the ground "She…She just….Arrgh!" he exclaimed as he buried his masked face in his fisted hands. Asuma looked at him even more curiously at his…dramatic friend then he finally pulled his face away from his fisted hands. "She just drives me crazy." He let out a small sarcastic laugh "And not in a good way."

Asuma glanced up at Shadow and his face grimaced when he saw Shadow looking down at Kakashi with murdering eyes with her legs handing from the edge of the branch with her elbows resting on her knees.

Kakashi continued to tell Asuma "I'm telling you, Asuma. She is entirely insane! She doesn't give a shit about anything but herself! She's cold! I swear there were times when I dream of strangling her to death! And it was blissful for me! And the last thing I want to do with her is to be with her! Seriously, she is craz—Oof!"

Shadow landed on his back and he was lying on the floor flat on his front while his held was being held down tightly against the ground by Shadow. She also locked his hands with her feet so he couldn't do any hand signs to do anything.

"And YOU think I enjoy your company, Hatake?" she growled at him as she tightened her hold around his head. He groaned as he could feel her sharp finger nails digging onto his skull. Shadow said to him **calmly** "Look, I've decided to leave tomorrow morning. Then you'll never see me again, are you happy now?"

Kakashi glanced at her from the corner of his eye while gritting through his teeth behind his mask in pain. Then he asked her with a small hiss "But if you leave…nngh…then I can't read that new book that Lord Jiraiya gave you…Oh God…you're crushing my head, woman!"

She tightened his hold around him and he groaned loudly in pain. Kakashi tried to push her off but she held him down strongly. Asuma felt kind of awkward of being in this situation but it was also entertaining and rare to see Kakashi getting easily frustrated.

Kakashi groan at her while trying to glare at her "Damn it! Stop crushing my skull! Don't make me hurt you!"

Shadow let out a big scoff "Right~. I highly doubt that you could do that in you condition, Hatake."

Kakashi growled at her; nearly inhumanly then he glanced at Asuma "Asuma, as my dear close friend. Help me out…" he said with a small growl.

Asuma hesitated for a moment then he forced a grin and said to them cheerfully by force "Well! This looks like a private matter! So, I'll be going! And don't forget to meet the Third for your missions you two! See ya!" he quickly did a hand sign and disappeared.

Kakashi shouted in anger "Asuma!" but he was already gone. Kakashi grumbled "Damn it, Asuma…" He groaned as he closed his exposed eye "Now…grrr…can you release my head…PLEASE!" Shadow softly smirked in victory then eased her grip on his head but did not release it. Kakashi sighed heavily in relief but he still felt irritated that she was still holding his head. "Why are you still holding my head?"

Shadow tilted her head to the side while looking down at the **vulnerable** Kakashi. She couldn't help but notice how soft his feathery silver hair is. It's just so soft. She asked him "What condition do you use?"

"…What?"

"What hair condition do you use?"

"Um…" here he is, being hold down by a probably crazed woman who apparently was going to torture him, but instead is asking what hair condition he use! "…_Head and Shoulder_. Why? Like my hair so much?"

"Hmm…you do have soft hair. I have to admit that."

Kakashi let out a small soft laugh and he asked her "Is that why you're still holding my head? All because of my _hair_?"

"Hmm…perhaps." Then she remembered what Asuma said before so she asked Kakashi "The Third has a mission for us?"

Kakashi sighed heavily and said "Apparently so…" he glanced at her "Now that you've calm down. Can you get off me and go to the Third already?"

She sighed heavily "All right. You win this round, Kakashi. You should be thankful that I'm not in a killing mood anymore." She finally got off him and stood by the side as he composed himself with a small groan. She glanced at the village and couldn't help but said "You know how lucky you are…"

Kakashi brushed himself from the dirt of his uniform then asked her "What?"

She didn't turn around to face Kakashi but she repeated her words to him "You're very lucky you still have a home, Kakashi…" this slightly surprised him that she didn't call him by his surname but she wasn't finished "…I…envy you for having something I've lost and can't have it again…"

Kakashi was now feeling quite sorry for the woman who drives him crazy. Seeing her looking at the village in envy was slightly…painful for him to see. He hesitated walked to her side and suggested "You know the Leaf could always have another…assassin."

Shadow turned to arch a brow at him "Are you…offering for me to stay? Here in the Leaf? What happened to the…'Oh, she drives me insane! And she's such a crazy bitch?'"

Kakashi slightly cringed "I didn't…entirely said that."

"But you were thinking about it. No doubt about that."

Kakashi sucked a side of his inside cheek a bit as he glanced at the side then muttered "Okay, maybe a little…"

Shadow shook her head softly as she chuckled softly then turned her attention back to the village. Soon her smile disappeared "…thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I'll have to reject that."

"Why? The Leaf is actually a good place to live."

"I know it is. That's why I can't stay. I don't want to risk this village in danger because of me."

"...Okay, I'm going to be honest with you. The Leaf looked after another and we help each other with ours problems. If you want, we can offer to help you whatever the hell problem you have."

Shadow looked at him again under her hood "That's strange, Hatake. I thought you were happy when I said that I was leaving."

"Well, yeah I **was** happy. But…" he looked at her in the eyes "…I don't think you deserve to run away for the rest of your life when you **can** have something that you think you can't have."

She slightly scoffed "Easy said than done. Look, thank you for your concern but I don't need it. It's best for everyone that I don't get too involve in their life. It keeps them safe. I'm a **haunted** assassin and I can't risk any innocents to die because of me. Many people have already died because of me."

"…Then what do you see in your future? When are you going to live your life?"

"What do you mean living my life?"

"I mean…do you see a peaceful future for yourself? Without being hunted?"

"…I honestly don't know. But I'll find out when the time comes…"


	7. A WEEK?

Reviews pretty pls!

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><p>Kakashi turned to face Shadow with a small playful smirk behind his dark blue mask "Want to race?" Shadow arched a brow at him but she felt the eagerness to have a small game with him.<p>

She shoved her hands in her pockets as she asked him "What do you have in mind?"

Kakashi's smirk widened and strangely it made Shadow's heart to skip a beat by that simply look of him. It made her to reconsider about him, but she couldn't trust him; not this soon. He pointed at the rooftops and said "Race you to the Hokage building?"

Shadow smirked "That's it? Just race there to the Hokage building?"

Kakashi nodded "Yep. That's about it. Or is it too simple for you?" he asked daringly as he crossed his arms on his chest.

"No, it's fine. But don't expect me to go easy on you."

"I really don't expect anything from you, Shadow."

"…What's the catch?"

Kakashi's smirk widened and he took a step closer to her. Her mind was telling her to move away from him but her body wasn't responding to her. When he was just a foot close to her, he said "If I win, I get to have that new addition book of yours."

"And if you lose?"

Kakashi sighed "If I lose, then…I'll pay for dinner. Sound good?"

Shadow narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion. It's strange for Kakashi to seem to hate her just an hour ago, but now he was being friendly to her as if nothing bad had happened between them. She asked him "Kakashi…are you asking me on a date or something?"

He shook his head "No. We both know that we don't like each other but a catch is a catch. If I lose, I'll pay for dinner as…acquaintances. You game or not?" he asked with such a challenging tone in his voice. It's honestly quite alluring to her, but she hid it well and it's a good plus for the mask to hide most of her features.

She slightly smirked as she got an idea "Want to make things even more interesting?"

Kakashi arched a brow at her as he shifted his weight to one side "And what is that?"

"When one of us loses, the loser will have to show their face."

Kakashi's hand gripped his arms tightly since they were crossed on his chest. He didn't want to show his face to her! And his face is like a priority to him. Why would a woman like her want to see his face? Sure, many woman would die to see his face and when they do, it only made them to crave him even more. That's not what he wanted from Shadow…or does he? He had this small part of him that **wanted** to show his face to her, but there were doubts.

What if Shadow makes fun of him? Will she tell anyone about his face if she does see it? Will she think it's just another normal face? Is she expecting something horrible from his face? Like a scar or a mole?

Kakashi asked her suspiciously while narrowing his visible eye to her "And why would you like to see my face? Will I see yours if you see mine? That sounds fair to me, no?"

Shadow sighed heavily "All right."

"…What?" Kakashi was quite…surprised that she would agree without hesitation. But maybe she has a plan…Kakashi dropped the tone of surprise "Drop the act, you're just bullshitting me."

Shadow narrowed her eyes at him and replied with a small growl "I'm not bullshitting you, Kakashi. I think it's fair that if I'm going to see your face, you should see mine too. Now, you want to get that book or not?"

Kakashi still didn't trust her but he's _dying _to get that book. He offered her "You can go first, if you want?" he cracked his neck a bit.

Shadow sharply glared at him under her hood "Thanks but no thanks."

Once Kakashi was done with his little warm up while Shadow was waiting for him to be done, he said to her "All right, there will be no teleportation, no shadow-clones and no weapons."

"Whatever and let's get this over with already."

Kakashi rolled his single eye to the sky "Stubborn woman…" He started to count down "Ready…set…GO!" Both of them immediately dashed in a quick speed and it left a big trail of dust behind. Shadow and Kakashi swiftly avoided the villagers as they ran and they nearly bumped some people but they managed to go through.

Kakashi glanced at Shadow who was running right beside him then he added chakra in the soles of his feet to increase his speed. He managed to get ahead of her and he smirked in victory as he screamed mentally *That book is as good as mine!*

Suddenly he felt something tightly wrapped around his legs and he tripped flat on the floor. He groaned deeply as he skidded on the ground and he grunted as he looked over his shoulder to a long rope tied to a street light and it was the one that got his legs. He was going to reach his hand out to get his weapon pouch but realized that they were missing.

"Huh?" he looked to see that they were gone but there was a note. He grabbed the note and saw Shadow's name written on it. He crushed the note and threw it to the side as he quickly untangled the thick ropes with effort as he cursed under his breath "Damn it!"

Once he was unbounded, he quickly dashed towards the Hokage building; hoping that Shadow hadn't gotten there yet.

When he got to the Hokage building he saw no sign of Shadow when he was at the entrance. He let out a small disbelief laugh "Heh, she's not here."

"You got that wrong, Hatake." He flinched from the tone as it was coming from behind him. He slowly turned his head to see Shadow sitting on the railing above while reading the book he wanted.

He cursed under his breath and shouted "You cheated!"

Shadow clapped the book close and put it safely in her back pack. "I didn't cheat. I just simply tied you down. That's all. And I wasn't breaking any rules. There were no teleportation, no shadow-clones and no weapons. So I played fair and square." She grinned at him as she crossed her arms proudly "So, I win."

Kakashi's visible eye was twitching in anger and he wanted to get up there to strangle the woman to death, but he knew that she was right. He sighed heavily in defeat as he dropped his head down in shame. "Fine…you win."

Shadow continued to smirk down at him until she heard a shout from above. They both turned their heads to see the Hokage looking down at them. "Since you two are finally here, mind coming up so we can discuss the mission?" He closed the window, leaving the two adults with a bit of shame for acting so childish and irresponsible.

Shadow turned her attention to the silver head man "This is your fault."

Kakashi gawked at her in disbelief "Wh-What? THIS is my fault!"

"Yes, because it was you who wanted this stupid challenge in the first place."

"Only because I want that damn book so much! I would kill to get it!"

Shadow arched a brow at him as she asked "Oh really? You would _kill_ to get it? Damn, you're crazier than I thought."

Kakashi's teeth gritted so tightly against each other as his hands turned into a white fist with his knuckles white; although it was hidden by his dark blue gloves with the small metal plates attached to the back of his hand. He swore that someday, he will make this woman vulnerable. He hated being treated like an idiot, especially from a woman.

Shadow smirked as she saw his glare and said "You know glaring at me to death won't change a thing." She glanced at the Hokage window over her shoulder and could already see the Hokage looking down at them behind the glass window; obviously getting impatient. She turned her attention back to Kakashi and still saw him glaring up at her. "My, you really are going to turn into a scarecrow. But shouldn't you be standing in a field while scaring crows away? That glare would simply work with a straw hat and ridiculous old garments."

Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of her and was intending to punch her with so much fury in his single eye. She quickly caught his hand with her own but he quickly pushed her off the railing so they both landed on the floor behind the iron railings. Shadow grunted from the impact but she quickly punched Kakashi across the face which made him to roll off her by her punch. Once he was done, she straddled him on the hips and punched him one more time across the face.

She shouted at him as she grabbed his collar "What the hell are you thinking, Kakashi? Are you serious to kill to get your hands on that book!"

Kakashi growled up at her then suddenly changed positions so he was on top of her. He shouted at her face while looking at her in pure anger. "It's YOU that pissed me off so much! You and that clever mouth of yours!"

Suddenly they heard a booming voice above "ENOUGH!" They both froze and they look up to see the fuming Hokage. "That is it! I'm changing your assignment! You'll be together in this mission for a WEEK!" He went back to his office and when he returned, he threw a scroll to them. It landed on the floor with a slight _clang_ and it rolled to them. "The information of your mission is in there! This is a A-rank mission! And don't you dare try to kill each other while you two are together!"

Shadow replied "T-Then why are you sending ONLY us!"

"Because I you two are the strongest shinobi I have NOW! I need this mission to be successful! I was going to give this to the ANBU but, apparently, they're all occupied with other important missions! And you two are the remaining capable soldiers I have! Now get moving before I summon the ANBU to kick you two out of the village to do the mission!" He banged the window doors closed and saw his shadow disappearing as he walked back to his seat.

Kakashi and Shadow stared at the window in disbelief. Then suddenly, Shadow punched him hard again across the face. He groaned as his face was looking the other way from the impact of her punch. He felt his jaw as he groaned. He glared hard down at her and growled "Oh, I can't wait for you to get out of this village. I hope this week doesn't last long…" he mumbled the last part as he felt his jaw to make sure that it's not completely broken. "Shit woman, you punch like a man…" he glared at her once more "…you're lucky that you're a woman."

Shadow glared up at him "Just because I'm a woman, doesn't mean that I'll be sweet with you all the time. Sometimes, you can be an ass without trying."

"I **wasn't** trying to be an ass. I was trying to-!"

"Get your hands on my book and see my face."

"…" Kakashi's jaw tightened but when it did, he groaned from the pain. *Shit…seriously…* he thought as he rubbed his jaw again.

Shadow had enough of him so she kneed him near the groin and he took in a sharp breath. He rolled off her and made into a human ball as he groaned in pain. "Argh…damn it woman! You're crazy AND a sadist!"

Shadow stood up from the ground, dusted herself off and bent over to grab the scroll from the ground. She tossed in the air repeatedly without effort while starring down at the poor Kakashi "Come on, Kakashi. Let's get this over with. The sooner we're done, the sooner I'll leave."

Kakashi glared at her from the corner of his eye "Easy for you to say…You're not the one who got hit near the groin…argh…"


	8. Anger

After Kakashi was feeling better, he stood up from the ground but not without a small groan. He glared at the woman who gave him that but she got her back facing him and she was eyeing the village gates. Kakashi wondered why the Hokage wanted her in this mission, although she's not even part of the village as a citizen. Couldn't she just simply run away if she doesn't want to be in part of this? But she just stood there like a stone statue with her black loose hair flowing gracefully as the wind blew by.

Kakashi didn't realize that he was holding his breath as he watched her silently for one whole minute. However, Shadow could feel his gaze on her and she hated it. She let out a heaving sigh and sharply turned around to scowled at him "Hatake, what the hell are you doing? Let's get this mission over with!"

Kakashi's anger returned to his vein stream and his visible eye immediately changed into a glare at her. He just shoved his hands in his pockets and walked – well, stomped – past her and grumbled "Be at the Gates in 5 minutes..." Then he immediately disappeared.

Shadow groaned deeply and waved her hands in the air as she let out a small exaggerating scream. "This is completely useless! Why the hell am I in this! I was supposed to leave tomorrow! Now, this village is going to be in more danger!"

She froze when she heard a voice above her "Now, that's interesting..." She jerked her head up and saw the Hokage looking down at her with a smirk with his smoking pipe hanging on the corner of his mouth.

Busted...so she cursed under her breath "Shit..."

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><p>Kakashi entered his apartment angrily and slammed the door behind him with a big loud bang that he could feel the shake under his feet. But he couldn't help it, he was angry – No! Angry is not right! Furious is the one! Yes, he was furious! Furious that the Hokage would screw him over like this! Being with Shadow for a WEEK is like spending with Gai and does his stupid exercising routine of 'youth' for months! But being with Shadow is 10 times worse! Kakashi would rather be with Gai – but not in a gay way – than to be with Shadow!<p>

Kakashi banged his apartment keys on the counter and his dogs appeared in the room from rushing out of his bedroom. Pakkun was the first to ask him "Kakashi, what the hell happened? You look like you want to rip someone's head off."

Kakashi inhaled deeply to try to calm himself and he said to him but a growl was heard as well "I'm fine, Pakkun. And I'm going on a mission for a week, so don't be too lazy when I'm not around."

His other dog – Fang – said to him "We know the drill, Kakashi. But we're more curious of why you're so angry. You're rarely like this."

Kakashi jerked his head to his curious dogs that were just sitting there and eyeing him like a hawk. It was quite petrifying. Kakashi just groaned from frustrating as he jerked his travelling bag from the corner of the room and dumped it on the couch before he started to prepare.

"It's none of your business..." Kakashi growled at his dogs as he was collecting some scrolls from the cupboard where he kept his equipment for missions.

The dogs glanced at each other until Pakkun sniffed the air more firmly and asked Kakashi "Kakashi, I can smell jasmine on you. Have you been spending time with that woman you mentioned before?"

Kakashi flinched and his hold on the scrolls that he shoved in his bag tightened. But he quickly released them and returned to the cupboard to get some weapons. Pakkun slightly smirked and said "I was right...It's that woman again. You're going on this mission with her, aren't you?"

Kakashi flinched again and a cold shiver went up through his spine; it was VERY unpleasant. It was like a feeling of meeting your death. He inhaled deeply to try to calm his mind and he glanced at the clock. "2 minutes left..." he mumbled under his breath. But why should he be there early. He's always late, but since the Hokage said that this mission was highly important, it would be official that Kakashi should be there on time. Plus, he doesn't want Shadow to think of him as a lazy ass that's always late.

Kakashi froze when he realized what he had just thought. What the f**k? Who gives a shit of whatever she thinks of him? Unfortunately, Kakashi does...but he hates her for f**k's sake! He slapped himself mentally for having a small battle with himself and he quickly prepared himself while ignoring his dogs the entire time while they were eyeing him.

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><p>Shadow closed the book and she let out a small sigh as she leaned her head against the bark of the tree that she was leaning on. She smirked as she said to the air softly "Jiraiya-sensei, you sure know your way to get very descriptive with your books..." She heard a deep chuckle behind the tree and revealed to be Jiraiya as he walked out. He leaned against the tree by his side while smirking at Shadow with his arms crossed on his chest.<p>

"How long did you know I was there?"

Shadow answered with a small smirk behind her black mask "Since you first came. I didn't want to spoil the fun, so I just let you ride this time."

Jiraiya let out another hearted chuckle and asked her "Shouldn't you be on your way half around the world?"

"I can't..." replied Shadow as he smirk disappeared. She put the book back in her back pack and let out a heaving sigh as she closed her eyes.

Jiraiya arched a brow at his former pupil and asked her "Something," he smirked softly "or someone on your mind?"

Shadow frowned as her brows furrowed. She opened her eyes to glare at her old teacher and replied to him coldly "It's none of your business, Jiraiya-sensei. Leave it."

Jiraiya then started to become dramatic as he said while placing his hands over his heart "Oh Shadow, you broke my heart! Your heart is as cold as ice, but with the right man, it can easily be melted."

Shadow continued to glare at him, but his words were echoing in her mind. She knew what he meant though. Even the coldest heart can melt when you're with the right person. And apparently, Kakashi was the first one to make her heart melt. Even though, they didn't have much flirting and pleasant talking. Just entirely the opposite; was that even possible that her heart could melt by someone she hates?

Jiraiya decided to ask her a different question, since Shadow won't answer him any time soon. "If you're not your way out of here, where are you going then?"

She let out another heaving sigh "I got this A-rank mission with the...scarecrow." She groaned as she mentioned him and an unpleasant shivered went up in her spine.

Jiraiya looked even more amused "Is that what this is about? Kakashi Hatake?"

Shadow stared at him annoyingly "Who else has a name of a scarecrow?"

"Come on, Shadow. He's not as bad as you may think. Get to know him first before you judge him."

"I did, and the result was that I don't like him."

"Why are you doing this mission anyway? You could just leave."

"I know, but the 3rd…caught me. And he kind of…blackmailed me."

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion "What? You got…caught? That's not like you, Shadow."

"Look, I just lost my cool in an unfortunate time. I yelled out loud – even though I shouldn't have – and the Hokage heard me! I don't know what I was thinking! Now, I feel like a bloody idiot!" She slapped her hand on her forehead and slid it down to her chin.

Jiraiya offered to her "You know I can talk with the Hokage to let you go? I know that you can't stay in one place for too long, or else…"

"I know the concepts, Jiraiya. Stop treating me like a little child. You know I hate that." She sighed heavily "And it's too late to back out now…"

"And why is that?"

"…because I agreed to finish this mission. But after I'm done, I can get out of here."

"…but you should still reconsider to stay, Shadow. The Leaf is not the safest, but it's a good place to stay."

Shadow sighed heavily and she sadly looked at Jiraiya under her hood. "Jiraiya, we talked about this already. I **can't** stay. I will just bring the village in more danger as it already is. I can't risk that."

Jiraiya let out a small scoff "Come on. It's not like this village has never experience danger before. There's always going to be danger, but the good thing about this place is that the village will protect you, whatever the cost."

"But I don't want the village to be at risk to protect me. Besides, I don't want to be protected. I can protect myself."

"I know you can, but you can't do everything yourself. And you can't keep this on forever. Just think about it kid, have a life in the Leaf or continue your life as it is. It's your choice." Jiraiya glanced at the side when he felt a presence coming nearby but he knew who it was when he immediately saw a glimpse of silver spiky hair. He smirked as he returned his gaze to Shadow "I should get going. Take care, Shadow. Try not to kill the poor man."

"I can't promise you that, sensei."

"I know. That's why I said '**try**'." Then he walked away and walked past Kakashi after giving him a small wave. Kakashi returned the gesture but he looked unhappy.

When Kakashi approached Shadow, he asked her grouchily "You ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." She asked him about the mission "Now, where we going and what is our goals?"

"The destination is in the Land of Rice, and we need to collect an important document from a Lord name Jokaku."

"I heard of him. He's the owner of the large jewellery company, right?"

"Yep."

"What's the document about?"

"How should I know? We just have to do a delivery, that' all."

"Tch, you're grouchy."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her. He crossed his arms on his chest as he growled at her angrily, since he's still angry about before "Have you ever wondered why?"

Shadow rolled her eyes to the sky as she turned to the road "Grow up…" she grumbled under her breath as she shoved her hands in her pockets.

Kakashi frowned behind his dark blue mask and grumbled "I'm in Hell…"

"Oh good. We finally agreed on something!" Shadow said to him with fake enthusiasm. Kakashi groaned deeply and angrily walked beside her.


	9. Tell Me

**Shadow stopped** with a sign of welcoming travelers to the Land of Rice. Kakashi stopped as well and asked her gruffly "What is it now?"

She didn't bother to answer him and just ignored him entirely since they left the village. Then she turned her head forward and continued to walk. Kakashi groaned softly at the back of his throat and thought angrily as he followed her. *What am I going to do with this woman? This is the WORST mission I've ever encountered.*

Later that day, they took a small break in the forest to rest for the night. Kakashi dumped his bag on the ground gladly and flexed his shoulders as they felt sore from carrying a heavy bag since he left the apartment. He glanced at Shadow to see her back facing him but she was still as a statue and very silent; perfect as an assassin.

Shadow said to him flatly. "I'm going to hunt something for dinner. Just stay here until I return." She was going to go but she was stopped when Kakashi asked.

"How will I know that you won't run away?"

Shadow glanced at him over her shoulder with a small glare. But she couldn't deny that she _was_ thinking about it. She sighed softly in defeat then put her bag down on the ground. She asked him unpleasantly. "Are you happy now? I have my things here so I'll **have** to come back."

Kakashi hated that she was treating him like he's a retard, a child. His hands turned into a tight fist while he gritted his teeth in anger and glaring at the back of her head as if he'll make a hole through it. He roughly replied her. "Yes..."

Shadow saw his anger and rolled her eyes to the sky. Before Kakashi could ask her of why she had done that, she dashed into the forest and disappeared in the deep crowd of the tall thick trees. When she was gone, Kakashi let out a long heaving sigh then suddenly turned around and punched a tree behind him; imagining that it was Shadow. He had never hated a woman as much as he hated Shadow. She drove him insane in anger and frustration yet he barely knew her.

Kakashi dropped his head down as he closed his eyes to calm himself mentally so he wouldn't beat the assassin to death when she returns. He could try but that will only end up badly for him. He heard rumours about her and her powers but he's not really certain if they were true or exaggerating. Although, there was this one rumour that caught his interests. He had heard that she had defeated an army alone at a very young age; he can't remember how old she was but it was impressive that she could have defeated an entire army all by herself. But these are rumours so there's a possibility that it isn't true. So, Kakashi will ask her – with a miracle that she'll talk to him – when she returns. But could he talk to **her**? A woman he barely knew yet he hated her so much?

Probably.

Kakashi let out another heaving sigh. He turned around after pulling his fist from the tree and slide down to the ground with his back against the tree. When he landed on the ground, he glanced at the path that Shadow had taken off to. *I wonder what's her past...*

* * *

><p>Shadow was leaning against a tree while thinking about her <em>companion<em>. She couldn't help it. She had no idea that she could hate him **this** much. And it's rare for her to be so angry at someone. Especially at someone she barely knew besides his reputation as the Copy Cat Ninja.

She sighed heavily as she leaned her head against the tree. *What am I doing? Why can't we get along for just one moment? Maybe I shouldn't have been so hard on him...but he makes me feel so vulnerable whenever he's near me. What the hell is **that** feeling whenever I'm around him?*

She heard a snap and she jerked her head towards the sound of it. She automatically pulled out three throwing blades and her katanna silently and swiftly from its sheath. She slowly walked towards the sound as a trained silent assassin. She took a quick look through the bushes and saw a doe eating some grass. She sighed softly as she hated to kill something so beautiful, but she needed something to eat for dinner.

She prepared herself to throw the throwing blades at the doe but mumbled softly. "I'm so sorry..." The doe jerked its head up and looked towards Shadow. But before it could escape, Shadow threw the blades at it in a lightning speed. She hit it in the eye, neck and stomach then it landed on the ground with a loud _thump_.

Shadow rushed to its side as it was struggling to bear with the pain. Shadow quickly aimed her katanna at its heart to end the poor creature's suffering. She quickly pierced its heart with her katanna and the sound of her cold blade piercing through its flesh gave Shadow a cold shiver up in her spine. She had to look away as she ended the creature's life, but it was better than a slow death.

She pulled her katanna from its flesh and placed it on the side. Shadow looked at the limp doe in her grasp and mumbled to it as she softly caressed its fur that isn't stained from its blood. "I'm sorry..." She had no idea why she always felt emotional when it comes to nature and its animals, but she was just born this way.

She sighed heavily as she grabbed her katanna and put it back in its sheath. She also put her throwing blades back to its place from the dead doe before she slung the dead creature on her shoulder. She turned to the direction of where she left Kakashi and dashed towards her destination as the sun was going down in the horizon.

* * *

><p>Kakashi was taking a small nap but he had a kunai in his hand to protect himself. He shot wide awake when he felt a presence coming to him and her jerked his head towards the direction as every muscle in his body went tense. But he heard her voice as she appeared at his sight "Don't worry, it's only me."<p>

He sighed softly as his body relaxed and he saw her putting down a dead doe on the ground but that wasn't the one that was surprising him, it was the look of sympathy from Shadow as she was looking down at the dead creature. He arched a brow at her and asked her out of his curiosity. "Shadow, are you...all right?"

Shadow took a quick glance at him, and then returned to the dead doe. "It's nothing..." she said to him softly and flatly but her look of sympathy was still clear in her eyes; even if her eyes were hidden under the shadows of her hood.

She breathed in deeply and pulled out a throwing knife. Then she started to cut little pieces of the doe but it was obvious that she was uncomfortable of doing so. Kakashi quickly got to her side and grabbed her wrist before she could tear another flesh of the dead creature. She tore her gaze off it to glance at Kakashi who was looking at her blankly.

"Hatake, what are you doing?" she asked him with a small growl.

Kakashi's jaw tightened but he said to her. "It's obvious that you don't want to cut it, so let me. Besides, you've already had your turn of hunting it down. Now, let me cut it for dinner."

Shadow hesitated for a moment and glanced at his hand that was gripping his wrist. She asked him. "Can you let me go now?"

Kakashi narrowed his eye at her "Then you'll let me?" Shadow nodded as she tore her eyes from him. She could feel her stomach fluttering with millions of butterflies and her heart racing in her chest. He didn't let go of her wrist but eventually he did. He softly took the bloody throwing knife and continued to cut the pieces out.

Shadow avoid watching the brutal sight of the poor creature being cut apart for a simple need of humans, it always made her feel nauseous whenever she thinks about it and the smell was not helping it at all.

Kakashi let out a small sigh as he was done and then glanced at Shadow. He saw her looking away from the brutal sight of the corpse so he said to her "I'll get rid of it while you make a camp fire. Okay?" His only response from her was a soft nod. He didn't bother to ask her another question. So, he grabbed the remains of the corpse and quickly went into the forest to get rid of it.

When Kakashi was gone, Shadow looked at the meat that they've cut off for dinner. *Hmm...this will be enough for two days at most...But poor thing...* She sighed heavily then stood up from the ground so she could gather some woods to make the camp fire.

* * *

><p>Kakashi returned and saw Shadow forming a small fire jutsu at the gathered wood she found to make the camp fire. After it was ignited, she turned her head to him but she didn't say a word and just returned her gaze to the camp fire.<p>

He arched a visible brow at her but didn't bother to ask a question because he knew that she'll just avoid answering it. He strode to her and kneeled down with the meat beside him. He put them in a long stick that he found nearby and put the meat over the fire to cook them for dinner.

Kakashi sat on the ground properly with his legs crossed while Shadow was doing the same thing but one leg was propped up and she used it to support her arm as a lazy gesture. It was awfully quiet as they watched the meat being cooked. Kakashi would have brought his book out to read it but he wasn't in the mood to read and he read the bloody book multiple times.

Shadow sighed softly and glanced at him from the corner of her eyes. Kakashi felt eyes on him so he glanced at her as well, but when they made eye contact with each other they automatically look back to the camp fire.

After 30 painful minutes, Shadow said to Kakashi "I think it's ready..."

Kakashi glance at her then look at the meat. He pulled a meat in a stick out from the fire and passed it to Shadow. "Here." Shadow glanced at Kakashi who was eyeing her blankly. She accepted the meat with a small nod as a 'thank you'.

Kakashi cursed mentally because the awkward tension was getting into his nerves. He grabbed the remaining meat in a stick, but he hesitated to eat it in front of Shadow. She's thinking the same thing because she glanced up at him again. But he got confused when he saw a small grin behind her black mask.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" he asked wryly.

"The last time I remember, we agreed that whoever losses the race will show their face." Kakashi flinched and could feel his blood turning cold as Shadow's grin widened. "And since I've won..." she mentioned Kakashi to pull his mask down "Show me your face."

Kakashi glared at her with his visible eye and he growled. "No."

Shadow's grin disappeared and she glared at him under her hood. "Are you breaking your word, Hatake?" She shook her head in disappointment. "I thought you were a better man than this."

Kakashi growled at the back of his throat. That really hit his pride. He let out a heaving sigh of defeat and growled. "Fine."

Shadow arched a brow at his growl and asked in wonder. "What? Are you afraid that I'll criticize your face? Or take a photo of it and show it to everyone?"

"You wouldn't be the first one."

"Hatake, I give you my word that I won't tell anyone about your face? Look, I'll make you a deal. If you show me your face, I'll show you mine."

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her in suspicion and asked her. "Swear it."

Shadow looked at him annoyingly and grumbled as she asked him. "Are you serious?"

"Just swear it already before I change my mind!"

"Fine! I swear it!"

Kakashi sighed softly and grabbed the corner of his mask to bring it down. He finally pulled down his mask to his chin and looked at her flatly. "Well? Are you happy now?" he asked with such a flat tone.

Shadow stared at him quite blankly, but in the inside she was shocked. She expected a normal face, but this face was **beyond** normal. It was beautiful. Now, Shadow could understand why he covers that handsome face of his with a mask. It would drive any woman insane with just one glance. Kakashi waited for her reply but he couldn't stop a smirk forming in his face. "Well, Shadow? What do you think?"

She snapped out of her trace and looked at him directly in the eyes. Then she shrugged her shoulders as she looked at her dinner. "I think its okay."

Kakashi literally got his jaw dropped as she stared at the woman in disbelief. This is not what he expected. He was expecting some determination to kiss him or something like any other women would do, but this woman was **repelling **him. He couldn't help to ask her "Wh-What?"

Shadow glanced at him lazily but he could see a small smirk behind her black mask. "You heard me. I think your face is...okay. Sure, I can see why women would go crazy about you, but I expected something...more than that."

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye at her in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"

"It's not important for you to know."

"Now that's _helpful_..." he said in sarcasm.

"Hey, I'm just saying..."

Kakashi inhaled deeply to calm his nerves as his blood was boiling underneath his skin. He couldn't help it. He was furious. He said to her "Okay, not it's your turn to show me your face."

Shadow sighed softly and mumbled. "I suppose that's fair." Kakashi didn't realize that he held his breath as she grabbed the edge of her mask then brought it down to her neck. His heart skipped a beat when he saw the beauty as she pulled down her hood to reveal her entire identity to him.

She glanced at him and when she saw his shock expression, she smirked. "So, what do you think?" Kakashi was absolutely speechless as he looked at her face. Only one word could describe her face. Beautiful. Just absolutely beautiful. She sighed softly as she leaned her head back so she could look at the sky. She smiled as she looked at the beautiful sky. "Aren't they beautiful...?"

Kakashi let out a small sigh. "Yes you are..."

Shadow glanced at him with a small laugh and asked him. "Did you hear of what I just asked?"

Kakashi snapped out of his thoughts and asked her nervously. "Wh-What?"

She let out a small laugh and looked back to the stars above. "I was asking whether you think the stars are beautiful or not."

"Oh, the stars..." he mumbled and he looked up. "Yeah, they are..." Then he chuckled to himself as he dropped his head down.

Shadow arched a brow at him and wondered what is so funny to him, so she asked him. "What's so funny?"

Kakashi looked at her with a humorous smile and asked. "Where did we go wrong? I mean, how did we end up hating each other so much when we barely knew each other?"

"You know, that's a very good question..." she mumbled but she had to agree with him. She had no idea of how it came to this.

Kakashi let out a small chuckle then asked her. "You don't think that we should restart all of this? We didn't get off with a good start."

"Oh, we did but there was that moment when you made a fool of yourself and you made me feel..." she stopped when she realized what she was going to say. She looked at Kakashi to see him looking at her in surprise but he couldn't help but to ask her.

"What? I made you feel what?"

*Vulnerable. Butterflies in my chest and my heart racing like I've been running for days nonstop.* she thought but she answered him with this instead. "It's nothing, Kakashi. Just leave it at that."

Kakashi narrowed his visible eye at her but didn't push it. So, he asked her the same question. "So? Can we restart before we tear at each other's throats?"

Shadow let out a soft humorous chuckle and looked at him in the eye with a small smile. He smiled back and held out a hand for her to shake. She glanced at his hand and let out another small laugh as she accepted his hand with a shake.

"You got yourself a deal, Hatake."

His smile dropped. "Are you going to keep calling me by my surname?"

"What's wrong with that?"

"_Shadow_." He growled her name as a warning.

She let out a heavy sigh of defeat but a small smile was still on her face. "Very well, I'll call you by your name...Kakashi."

He gave her a kind smile. "Good."

Shadow softly blushed when she realized that Kakashi was still holding her hand but she didn't want to pull away from his touch. The butterflies were fluttering in her stomach, but this time it was 10 xs better. Kakashi glanced at their hands as well and hesitated to pull away.

Everything went quiet once again but the tension between them was better than before. Shadow first took a small bite of the meat and she chewed it slowly to savour the taste, although she felt bad because it reminded her of the doe she killed. Kakashi watched her as she ate her dinner slowly but he soon ate his meat in the same pace as her.

After a while, Shadow was half finish with her ate until Kakashi asked her. "Can you tell me your real name?"

She stopped midway of taking another bite of her half eaten meat. She glanced at Kakashi to see him looking at her so intensely. "Don't you think showing my face to you is revealing enough?"

"I know, but if it's all right with you...?"

"...I don't know..."

Kakashi quickly said to her to earn her trust over this. "I promise that I won't tell a single soul of your name, without your permission."

Shadow narrowed her eyes at him then she said to him. "Then you're paying for the second dinner."

"S-Second?"

"Yeah! Remember that you would pay for dinner if I won the race!"

"Oh...that."

"So yeah, you owe me a second dinner."

He couldn't help but to smirk at her. "Is that a date?"

Shadow smirked at him. "Maybe..."

His smirk widened and he said. "All right, I'll pay for that second dinner. Now," he scooted a bit closer to her "tell me your name."

Shadow arched a brow. "What? Without a 'please'?"

Kakashi's smirk dropped immediately from his face and he growled at her. "_Shadow_"

She gave in. "All right, all right. I'll behave." Then she glared at him. "If you dare tell a soul to anyone, I'll cut off your balls. Are we clear?"

"Ouch..."

"_Kakashi_."

"Okay, fair enough. Now tell me."

She took in a deep breath as Kakashi was waiting for her to tell him her real name. She looked at him in the eyes and softly replied as she leaned her face close to his. "My name is Ordeyna."


	10. Bounderies

Kakashi was watching the camp fire in the middle of the night since it was his turn to take patrol. Shadow AKA Ordeyna went to sleep about 10 minutes ago. He counted how long it would take for her to sleep and he knew she did when her body went less tense and her breathing went steady.

Kakashi smirked down at her lying figure softly and leaned closer to her with the support of his arm. He watched her exposed beautiful face as she breathed in and out softly. Now, he understood why she had to hide her identity. It could be used as a dangerous weapon in combat to distract her enemies with just one single glance. Kakashi chuckled softly at the silly thought but he continued to enjoy his little imagination.

He brought his hand towards her face to caress her soft-looking pale skin. But before he could even touch her skin, his wrist was suddenly grabbed in a blink of an eye. Soon, he was pushed on the ground fast, felt some weight on him and noticed a black katana at the edge of his throat. Kakashi looked up to see her golden eyes in high alert with fire but when she realized who it was, that spark of fire disappeared.

"Kakashi...?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "What were you doing? You shouldn't have done that, you know? I could have killed you."

He smirked up at her with confidence clear in his visible eye. "But you didn't." He enjoyed the position they were in. Ordeyna was straddling his hips while she was still holding his wrist and her free hand holding her black katana.

She rolled her eyes to the starry sky. "_Kakashi_..." she growled his name and that gave him a small pleasant shiver up in his spine. He watched her soft light pink lips when she said his name and he wondered how it would feel to press his own lips on hers.

Ordeyna arched a brow when she heard no reply from him and she saw him eyeing on her lips. "Kakashi?" she called out his name; hoping that he would snap out of his thoughts before things could get out of hand.

But it seemed that Kakashi had already gone over his limit. He suddenly changed positions so he was on top and she was below him. She stared up at him in surprise and then she growled with a small glare. "Kakashi, get off. You're heavy."

"That's not going to happen, Ordeyna."

She shivered when he said her name; her real name. She looked away from him as she could feel her face on fire. "Kakashi, stop playing games with me and get off. Seriously, you're suffocating me."

She gasped when she felt some cold lips brushing against her cheek. "Not gonna happen..." She let out a shaky sigh when he trailed his lips down to her ear and she whimpered softly when he softly bitten her earlobe.

"K-Kakashi...wha-what are you doing...?" she asked as she sighed softly when he brushed his lips on her fiery cheeks. She could feel his hands feeling her sides and they rose up to her high back.

He replied huskily. "I honestly don't know..." He planted a soft kiss on her pink cheek. "But do you want me to stop?"

*No...* She didn't say it out loud but when he didn't hear any protest from her or anything that signed him that she didn't want any of this, he continued. Then he kissed the corner of her lips and that made her to freeze in her spot. She slightly turned her head to glance up at him and he slightly pulled away to look at her in the eyes.

They both hesitated for a moment until Kakashi finally closed the gap between them as he covered her lips with his. Ordeyna stared up at him surprisingly but she slowly closed her eyes and kissed him back lightly. Kakashi felt his stomach flipped but he deepened the kiss as he closed his eyes.

Ordeyna felt him licking her bottom lip as asking her permission. She refused with a smile. She heard a deep growl from him and felt him slightly shifted in his position on top of her. Kakashi grabbed her arms and put them around his neck as if her arms were lifeless but she tightened her hold around his neck.

Kakashi tried asking her permission once again but not after biting her bottom lip softly as a warning that he'll do some necessary harm if she doesn't allow him. Her smile widened and this time gave him permission. She moaned softly as he was caressing her tongue with his and she didn't hesitate to join in the tongue dance.

After a moment, he pulled away from the kiss but after one final long peck. They both panted heavily and stared at each other's eyes for a silent moment. Ordeyna softly whispered to him, "You shouldn't have done that…"

"Why didn't you stop me then? You could have done that easily before I kissed you."

"I know…but I just…got caught up in the moment, I guess…"

"Why do you think I shouldn't have done that?"

"Because it would be harder for me to leave the village after we're done with this mission."

"Don't leave then. Stay in Konoha. Stay with me."

"I'll put you all in danger. Would you and the village risk your lives to have me as a burden?"

"We always risked our lives for our own. Let us help you of whatever your problem is."

Ordeyna sighed heavily in defeat as she softly stared at him from below, "Are you really certain about this, Hatake? You'll regret keeping me later."

Kakashi smirked and pecked her lips softly, "Not as much as not seeing you ever again."

Ordeyna smirked at him softly with an arched brow, "You should lay off those books. The good lines are getting into your head."

"Hey, at least they're working."

"Unlucky for you, I know every single line and I know when it's a line so don't use it so frequently at me."

"But come on! There are so many good lines in those books!"

"This is what happens when you're addicted to those books! They won't let you have a mind of your own!"

"Don't you read them, too?"

"That's because Jiraiya-sensei wanted my opinion on the bloody thing. Sure, it has good taste and story but I'm not that addicted as you, which I'm certain of."

Kakashi shifted a bit in his position to make himself comfortable above her and he smirked down at her, "Are you sure? Because you did say that you know every single line in the book. Don't you think that's addiction?"

"Well…not on the long scale of basis…"

Kakashi chuckled as he softly shook his head then leaned down again to kiss her. She kissed back softly and felt her stomach flutter madly with her heart racing in her chest. Ordeyna pulled away from the kiss and looked into his only visible eye. She let out a small laugh as she rested her head on the ground.

"What do you think the others will react to this?"

"I'm guessing that they would be shocked but I think they will be relieved of having less tension in the air whenever we're around each other. But we may want to watch ourselves around the kids, wouldn't want to scar them."

Ordeyna giggled softly, "It is YOU who must have self-control. I can control myself perfectly."

His smirk widened and a playful glint was in his eye, "Are you sure about that?"

Ordeyna arched a brow at him, "Oh no, I know that look." Before she could stop him, he was already devouring her neck. She gasped softly when he licked a certain spot in her neck and started to suck it softly; possibly giving her a hickey. "Hmmm…." She moaned softly as she closed her eyes while feeling desire for this man.

Ordeyna had enough, since he already made his point when she let out a shaky grasp when he softly bitten her neck. "Okay Kakashi, you made your bloody point." She placed a hand on his chest and pushed him away but not too far away; just enough to get his mouth off her neck.

He continued to smirk at her like a fox as she glared up at him, "See what I mean, Ordeyna?"

"Yes…" she growled. She stabbed a finger at him as she said to him sternly, "Okay, we have to have some boundaries when we're in public. One: You can't say my real name or else I'll kill you."

"I believe we already established that."

"Two: We can't show our relationship in public, I don't want my enemies to know about us."

"Fair enough. It would be hard though, but fair enough."

"Three: Well…I have nothing."

Kakashi volunteered to fulfil the third boundary, "Okay. Can I say something?"

"Okay, what do you have in mind?"

"Third:," he smirked widely at her, "you become my assistant."

"…what?" she asked with a small growl.

"You heard me: become my assistant. Lately, Lord Hokage has been asking the mentors of the three Genin teams to have an assistant. To make things easier."

"That's the stupidest third boundary I have ever heard!"

"Come on, Ordeyna! Think about it! You and I will be working **together**! Don't you think it would be easier? Plus, you get to have a job and the payment is good, too."

"Well…" she trailed off as she thought about it, it doesn't sound TOO bad. "…all right. I guess I can live with that."

"Perfect. Now can I kiss you?"

"No." She replied to him flatly.

"If you insist."

He suddenly crashed his lips on hers and she muffled in surprise. She quickly registered what was happening and kissed him back while cupping his face with her hands.


	11. Too Late

"…Will you stop smirking, Kakashi! It's getting on my nerves." Ordeyna growled at him as she walked beside him while passing through a small simple village. Ever since they day they kissed, Kakashi had been playing around with her with good lines from the book and was flirting with her endlessly. He was certainly not keeping his boundary!

"Come on, Shadow. Can't you see that I'm **relieved** that we're not at each other's throats?"

"Yes but I'm starting to have doubts about what we have now!"

Then she stopped when they walked past a food store. Kakashi stopped as well and asked her, "What's wrong?"

She looked at him from under her hood, "Let's get some food. We still have a long way to go to the Land of Rice."

"You went there before?"

"One time only but I know that there aren't much food stores during the way of where we're going."

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders a bit, "Fine." He entered the food store with Shadow and they were immediately greeted by the old woman behind the cashier counter.

"Welcome, welcome!"

* * *

><p>They were walking down the road again and everything was quiet while a crow was cawing while flying pass by. Kakashi glanced at her and asked. "Hey, if you're not going to read that book…"<p>

Shadow looked at him then sighed softly. "I knew this was coming…" she mumbled as she dug her hand in her backpack. Then she pulled out the new season of the book. Kakashi's visible eye immediately twinkled with delight and he caught the book as it was thrown by Shadow.

"Knock yourself out." She said to him plainly while waving a lazy hand at him.

Kakashi was already reading the book and Shadow could see his visible eye scanning over the letters in a flash. Shadow rolled her eyes in the air and mumbled "I bet you would do ANYTHING to protect that blasted book."

Kakashi said to her without leaving his eye off the book, "What? It's a good book. It really helps with my love life and all."

"I know that but come on, Kakashi. Do you flirt with every woman with the same line from those books?"

"I can't remember. Lost count." Or he was just too lazy to remember.

Shadow sighed heavily and thought *This will be a long time.*

* * *

><p>They had to camp for the night in the woods again but tomorrow they will reach their destination or that's what Kakashi said. Through the whole day he had been doing nothing but reading his book to what seemed to be no end. Ordeyna was already starting to have regrets of giving him that blasted book because he hadn't talk to her through the entire time.<p>

Sometimes she would try to start a conversation on some things but his only answers were either nods or grunts.

Ordeyna was going to go find some wood to make some fire while Kakashi was sitting against a tree on the ground while his face was buried in the book. But before Ordeyna could take a step forward she heard a loud thunder from the sky. They both looked up to see a dark storm forming above them and as predicted little rain started to pour. Then it got worse.

"How lovely…" Shadow grumbled under her breath as she brought her hood even lower but she could already feel her clothes getting soaked. Kakashi quickly stood up from his sitting position, closed the book after memorizing the page number and put it safely in the pouch.

He said to her as he got to her side, "Let's find a place to stay out of this rain. Know any caves nearby?"

"I've only been on these lands once. How do you expect me to know the landscape?"

He shrugged his shoulders and scanned the area. "Hmm…I've been here a couple of times during some missions in my ANBU days…" He looked at Shadow, "Follow me. If I'm right, there should be an abandoned tower close by. Let's just hope that nobody is inside."

He already started to lead to the location that he believed to be so. Shadow said to him, "If there is anyone inside we'll explain to them. They might understand."

"Just don't get your hopes up. I heard the people from the Land of Rice are not as welcoming as the Leaf. They rather close their doors to ninja than giving them a warm welcome."

"Well I can't blame them for that. Many fear ninjas because they have the ability to kill. I wouldn't even welcome an ANBU if he landed on my doorstep."

"Don't you think that's a little harsh? What if the ANBU is injured?"

"Then I'll send him to the hospital. Don't want my couch to get any blood; hard to clean."

"You know that this is not so funny anymore."

"Hey, you've been ignoring me since I gave you the bloody book!"

"Was I? I remember…listening to you."

Ordeyna rolled her eyes, "Please, don't give me that crap…" she grumbled. She sighed softly and said to him in a normal tone, "Let's just get to this abandoned tower of yours so I can dry up, I don't like to be wet."

* * *

><p>"Ah, this is it." Enthused Kakashi and he felt pleased to find the abandoned tower that he was looking for the past three hours. It must be 1 in the morning by now. Shadow walked past him and entered the tower. Thankfully it was empty and the place looked rotten and hadn't been used for a very long time. There were also some leaks from the ceiling, actually there are many leaks but this was better than outside. Outside was pouring needles of rain, it even hurt her skin.<p>

She sighed with relief as she entered and she sat on a wooden box as Kakashi walked past her. "Finally…" she mumbled as she pulled her hood and mask down. She collected her hair to the side and squeezed them tightly by a twist to get the water out of her hair. "I hope we stay somewhere that has a bathroom tomorrow. I had enough of sleeping outdoors."

Kakashi stopped and turned around to show her an arched curious brow, "Really? But don't you travel around a lot?"

"I **have** to run, Kakashi. I have no choice."

"'Have'? You're not considering staying in Konoha?" asked Kakashi as he sounded surprise. Has she forgotten about him? About them? About their first kiss?

"I have doubts, Kakashi. I really don't think it's best for me to stay in Konoha."

"What about us?"

Ordeyna stared at him with an unreadable expression as she released her hair to the side. She sighed softly as she looked away, "To be honest, I don't want to leave but I **have** to. I don't want you to get hurt because of me."

Kakashi softened his eyes and strode to her. He kneeled down on one knee so he could look up at her to see her face because her head was done. He pushed away some of her black damp hair from her face and leaned forward as he pulled down his own mask so he could plant his lips against hers.

She blinked a few times because she was quite surprise but she gladly returned the kiss with her eyes closed. After a while he slightly pulled away from the kiss and said to her, "You **always** have a choice, Ordeyna. But the Leaf can help you. I can help you."

She sighed heavily as she dropped her eyes from his face to the dirty muddy floor. "So there is no way that you'll change your mind of being with me? We aren't even that close yet. It's still not too late to change your mind about…this." She mentioned between them.

"It's already too late."

Before she could speak her lips were covered by his. She muffled against his lips in surprise but she when she registered of what was happening she kissed him back as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

It was a sweet warm kiss until he pulled away but he didn't pull far. They both panted softly then Kakashi noticed something on the ground. "What's this?" He bent over to collect the object that caught his eye and revealed to be a bottle of strong whiskey. He let out a small laugh and asked Ordeyna as he looked at her, "Want some?" he asked as he wave the bottle.

"Sure."

Ordeyna pulled her arms away from his neck and he easily opened the bottle of whiskey. He silently offered it first and she gladly accepted it. She drank some of the whiskey and it immediately burned her throat from the strong alcohol. She pulled the bottle from her lips and wiped it with the back of her hand.

She passed it to Kakashi and he drank some whiskey as well. Ordeyna said to him with a small smile. "Don't drink it too eagerly. You'll sore your throat in the morning."

He let out a sigh after pulling the bottle away from his lips as he felt his throat burning from the strong alcohol. He smirked down at her, "I'll keep that in mind."

Ordeyna looked inside his single eye and asked him "Do you have a family, Kakashi?"

His jaw tightened and he exhaled deeply through his nose. "The only family I knew of was my father. He was a…good man."

"…You're the son of the White Fang, aren't you?"

"That's right."

She immediately felt guilty of asking him that question because she had heard the tragedy of the White Fang. "Oh…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that question."

He politely smiled at her, "It's all right. You didn't know."

"But I should have known it sooner. I should have known that you were his…son…" She looked away as she mumbled angrily to herself, "I must look like an idiot right now…"

Her chin was soon cupped and it turned her head so she was forced to look at Kakashi in the face. "I don't think you are. Many people do that. Trust me." He released her chin and asked her the same question, "What about you? Have any family?"

"Well…I…have many good people who were like parents to me. Before that, when I was living in the Shadow Village I was adopted by the Kazekage. He was the best man I have ever known. I just wish he could live to see me like this…" she mumbled the last part as she sadly looked at the ground.

Kakashi's expression softened and he slowly wrapped his arms around her; testing if she'll be all right with it. When she didn't protest or move to prevent him from wrapping his arms around her, he brought her into a warm embrace.

He felt her wrapping her own arms around him and it made him to feel relief that she wasn't going to try to push him away as he thought. After a while of just embracing each other, Kakashi looked down at her and asked "Are you okay now?"

Ordeyna nodded and she pulled away from the hug. She looked around the rotten building and said, "Well, I guess we can sleep up there."

Kakashi looked up to see an upper floor with a big hole above them. "Yeah, it does look like a good place to sleep."

She took a step back "Then let's go." She said before she jumped and easily went through the whole. Kakashi followed suit and when he landed on the floor of the upper level, he saw that it barely had anything but it's better than the muddy floor below.

Ordeyna pulled out her only blanket from her backpack and laid it on the floor. She sat on it while letting out a small sigh. She glanced at Kakashi to see him walking towards her; he stood by her side and pulled out of his blanket from his backpack.

"You go and sleep, I'll keep watch."

She looked at him with a blank expression for a while; silently making a debate with herself in her mind. She sighed heavily in defeat as she looked away and lay on the ground to go to sleep. "Night, Kakashi."

"Good night."

He watched her sleep for a moment then he did some hand signs and slapped his palm on the ground. Then poof, appeared Pakkun with a bored expression.

"What's the situation, boss?"

"Nothing big at the moment but I want you to keep an eye out. I need the rest."

Pakkun nodded then when he saw Kakashi's bare face he looked utterly shock. "Kakashi! You're not wearing your mask!"

"I know."

"B-But you're in public!"

"So? Nobody is around here but Shadow and you."

"B-But…" he glanced at Shadow who was asleep and he sniffed. Then he said as he stared back to his master, "She smells just like jasmine. Kakashi, don't tell me that this is the same woman."

"Yes she is."

"Wow, this sounds serious."

Kakashi arched a visible brow at the bulldog, "Now what do you mean by that, Pakkun? I mean, she and I didn't start dating yet."

"W-Wait? What!" he asked frantically as he looked utterly shock. "Kakashi, didn't you hate this woman! I've never seen you so angry at someone before!"

"It's all in the past now. Shadow and I made up so now there is no problem between us."

Pakkun looked at her one more time and then look back to Kakashi, "Does she like dogs?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not sure but I'll ask when I get the chance." He yawned and lied down on the ground. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep…"

Pakkun sighed heavily and looked away from the couple. Kakashi didn't close his eye because he wanted to watch Ordeyna sleep for a while. He sighed softly then slightly crawled closer to her and hesitatingly put an arm over her waist. He closed his eyes to sleep until he felt her shift.

He opened his eye to see her turning around so her back was facing him and his arm was out of her reach. He sighed heavily as he thought *She doesn't like it.* Suddenly she crawled back to her spot and brought Kakashi's arm over her waist again. She tugged him closer to her hard so he was pulled towards her. His chest pressed against her back and she firmly placed his arm around her waist as she held them there.

Kakashi softly smirked and used his bag as a pillow before he went to sleep.


	12. Back

Getting the scroll was really easy and strangely there were no ambushes from rogue ninjas through the entire trip but neither Shadow nor Kakashi mind. They kept their relationship low and only when they're in private; they didn't want to risk the dangers if they're exposed to the entire world.

Kakashi stopped when he saw the large gates of the Leaf, "Home sweet home. Finally…"

Shadow slightly turned her head to glimpse at him and asked him teasingly, "What? Miss the little kids that much? I thought that Naruto of yours was always gives you a headache." Lately she had opened to him more than before. And she was thankful that the intense atmosphere was out of their hands since they got together.

He groaned deeply and playfully glared at her, "Don't remind me unless you want me to request the Hokage for another mission for a week."

She shook her head, "No thanks. This mission is long enough."

He playfully whined to her, "Aw…was the mission really that bad to you?"

She flatly answered to him with quite a serious aspect, "Yes."

He flinched when he heard her flat tone and asked her, "W-What?"

She let out a small giggle and simply replied to him, "I was only kidding, Kakashi. Can't you take a joke?"

He chuckled deeply after letting out a small sigh of relief. He shook his head, "Actually, I can't really imagine someone like you to joke around. I seriously can't."

She let out a heavy sigh and started to walk towards the village, "Come on. Lord Hokage must be expecting us."

* * *

><p>The Hokage was writing something on some paper work with two different stashes on his desk. One was complete and the other was incomplete paperwork. It's really a boring work; he wondered if Naruto will enjoy this when he becomes Hokage.<p>

The old Sarutobi softly smiled at his little imagine of an older version of Naruto scribbling some writing on some paperwork with a miserable face that there was so much paperwork instead of fighting or doing something adventurous as he craves it so much.

Knock! Knock!

He snapped out of his train of thoughts and quickly cleared his throat before calling out, "Come in!"

The door was opened to reveal Shadow and Kakashi.

The old man smiled at them warmly as his greeting and he asked them, "So…how was the mission you two? I'm so glad that you're both still in one piece."

Kakashi closed the door behind him and stood beside Shadow. "We've got the scroll as you requested, sir."

Shadow dug her hand in her small back pack and easily threw a scroll with a red band tied around it. The old man caught it with skilled reflexes and nodded approvingly at them. "Well done, I expected no less." He opened one of the drawers of his desk with his free hand and put the scroll inside. He returned his gaze to them and said, "You may go."

"Lord Hokage," started out Shadow which caught the two men's attention, ", can I have a talk to you for a moment?"

"…Certainly." The Hokage nodded towards Kakashi for him to leave and he obeyed but not before he gave Shadow a look that he'll wait outside for her. After he left, Shadow turned her attention back to the old man. He asked her, "Now, what do you need to talk about?"

She let out a heavy sigh and she rubbed the back of her neck, "Well…I'm reconsidering the offer that you gave me…or the blackmail."

The Hokage chuckled.

Shadow continued, "I'm thinking of staying here, in the Leaf."

The Hokage smiled widely at her, "That's good to hear, Shadow. We could have someone like you in the Leaf."

Shadow arched a brow at him, "Wh-What? Just like that? You're not going to give me some terms or something? It can't be that simple!"

"Oh on the contrary, Anko had already told me everything about you. She was begging me to allow you to stay just in case you reconsidered. And so far, I won't mind having a soldier like you."

Shadow grumbled as she rolled her eyes to the ceiling, "Anko…" Then she asked him, "What did she say about me?"

He chuckled deeply, "Don't worry. Only the good stuff…or do you have some criminal records that I should know…" It was obvious that he was enjoying this little game of theirs.

She shook her head quickly, "No, it's best that you don't know if you want to keep your skin."

"Hmm…fair enough." He suddenly opened one of the drawers of the desk and she noticed that he pulled out a headband. He threw it to her and she caught it swiftly. She looked down at the glistening leaf headband in her hand and she heard from the Hokage, "Welcome to the Leaf."

* * *

><p>Shadow exited the office and after she heard the door being closed behind, "So…how was it?" She turned her head to see Kakashi leaning against the wall by his side.<p>

She put most of her weight in one leg and answered him, "It was fine. Why?"

Something caught his attention and he asked her with a grin spreading behind his dark blue mask, "Is that…a Leaf headband?"

She rolled her eyes and said to him sarcastically, "No, this is a Rock headband." She waved the headband to him.

His grin immediately dropped and he grumpily said to her, "You know you didn't need to do that, Shadow. That really hurts my feelings."

"Boo hoo, deal with it." She put her head band in her back pack and groaned as she flexed her shoulders a bit. "I'm going home. I need the rest."

"What about lunch? Want to have some before we head home?"

"Nah, I'm going straight home and hit the hay. I need the rest." She waved goodbye to him as she turned her back to him, "See ya!"

But before she could walk down the stairs, Kakashi appeared by her side. "I'll walk you home."

"Kakashi, there is no need for that."

"Just let me walk home with you. Besides, I'm your neighbor." There was something in his tone that was mixed with tease. He was trying his best not to flirt around her and it's a possibility that the Hokage is watching them through his magical orb of his.

* * *

><p>Shadow stopped in front of her apartment and turned to face him, "Okay. Now that I'm home, you can go to your own apartment."<p>

"Okay…" he mindlessly said. He glanced around and tried to sense anyone nearby. _Nobody's around…and I hope that the Hokage is not watching us through that magic orb of his…_ He returned his gaze to Shadow and she immediately saw something in his single eye that made her to take a step back but she hit the door.

"Kakashi…" she said his name with a warning tone.

He stepped closer and caged her with his arms. "What's the matter?" He already started to bring his hand towards his mask and pulled it down to his chin. He was smirking widely at her and he reached his hand out to hook a finger on her mask.

"K-Kakashi…" she stuttered as she felt embarrassed with her heart racing in her chest rapidly. "…w-we're in public." She tried to reason him but it didn't stop him from leaning closer to her face and he was softly pressing her body with his.

"Don't you see anyone else here?" he asked as he tilted his head to the side and softly brushed his lips against hers.

"U-Uh…" she was just utterly speechless now and she could feel her knees getting weak. Finally he crashed his lips onto hers and she muffled softly in surprise.

He licked the bottom of her lip and she just licked the bottom of his lips back. He groaned softly and pushed her against the door harder. He received a small groan from her and he smirked in the kiss.

Ordeyna finally opened her mouth and he didn't hesitate to plunge his tongue inside to explore it. She moaned softly as he was massaging her tongue with his and she didn't hesitate to join in the tongue fight.

They felt breathless but they couldn't pull away from each other. Until Ordeyna had to breathe so she pulled away while panting heavily but Kakashi wasn't any better. He pressed his forehead against hers as he panted heavily and Ordeyna felt the coldness of the metal of his headband against her forehead but she didn't care.

Once he regained his breath, he pulled away with a small smirk. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

He received a cold glare from Ordeyna, "You're _very_ lucky that there was no one around or else I would have beaten the hell out of you."

He surprisingly chuckled and that was not what she expected but she didn't cease her glare to him. "Whatever you say, Ordeyna." He said to her so nonchalantly. He pulled up his mask and walked down the hallway towards his apartment. "I'll see you later."

Ordeyna sighed heavily and rubbed the side of her temple. "I swear, that man is nearly impossible…" but a smile was slowly forming on her face. "Aw, what the hell," she muttered as she shrugged. She turned around, pulled out her apartment key, opened the door and entered.


	13. New Mission

Naruto stared at Shadow in disbelief, "You're…what?" he asked; still surprised of the news.

Kakashi was smiling widely behind his mask and he repeated himself for Naruto, "You heard me. Shadow is going to stay and she's going to help us as an assistant."

He received an elbow being pushed against his ribs from Shadow. He groaned in pain and softly glared at her with his single eye.

"Was that _really_ necessary?" he growled as he asked.

But Shadow just huffed while crossing her arms on her chest and looking away.

Suddenly Naruto appeared by her side and he started to plead her while tugging her arm. "Shadow, please teach us something cool! Come on! Come on! You got to know some cool jutsus!"

Shadow stared down at the blonde hair boy in surprise of his enthusiasm. But Kakashi cleared his throat to get the team's attention. "I'm sorry to butt in but we have some D-rank missions to do."

The Genin groaned deeply.

Naruto started to complain as they were on their way towards their first D-rank mission of the day: pulling out weeds from a garden of herbs.

"Come on, Kakashi-sensei! We've been doing D-rank missions for months! Let's do something adventurous like the last time at the Land of Waves!"

Kakashi groaned softly at the back of his throat and he was going to say something to Naruto but Shadow beat him to it. "Now Naruto, I'm sure that Kakashi knows what he is doing so just follow him. You'll get the chance, but just be patient. That's one of the keys of being a great ninja."

"Really?" asked Naruto.

She nodded, "Yep."

Kakashi sent her a look of gratitude and she nodded in reply.

Although he wanted to do more than that, he nearly reached out to hold her hand but he knew that she would be furious with him if he had done so, especially in front of the Genin or anywhere in public.

He sighed softly in disappointment, *Damn it…*

* * *

><p>Shadow watched the Genin as they pulled the weeds out of the small herb garden while Kakashi was right beside her and was reading the book. She watched Naruto trying to identify the difference between an herb and a weed. He groaned in annoyance and rubbed the side of his throbbing little head.<p>

"Argh, this is nearly impossible! They look the same!"

Shadow sighed softly then turned her head to the female Genin, "Sakura!"

Sakura stopped to turn her head up to Shadow, "Yes?"

"Please help Naruto over there about the difference between herbs and weeds."

Sakura sighed heavily with an annoying expression but muttered, "Yes Shadow-sensei…" then she walked towards the still confused Naruto.

Shadow glanced at Sasuke to see that he was doing fine and he was quiet as usual. She asked Kakashi without leaving her eyes off the boy, "Kakashi, what's his story?"

Kakashi glanced at her over the book then followed her gaze to Sasuke. "His story is…quite complicated. You must have heard of the Uchiha clan years ago."

"The clan that was slaughtered by Itachi Uchiha…"

"Yes. And Sasuke is the only survivor and is the brother of Itachi."

"You don't say…" she muttered in amusement as she continued to watch Sasuke.

Suddenly they heard a hawk cry from above so they look to see a hawk flying in circles over their heads. Kakashi however mumbled, "The Hokage wants to see us now…"

Shadow returned her gaze to the Genin and shouted, "That's enough for today! We have to go see the Hokage now!"

Naruto immediately pounced back on his feet, with a wide grin on his face, "Finally! Maybe the old man has a serious mission for us this time!"

Sakura sighed heavily, stood up and brushed the dust off her pretty clothes. Sasuke just stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets after throwing the weed in his hand to the side.

Shadow stood up on the branch and said to Kakashi as she cracked his knuckles, "Let's get this over with."

* * *

><p>"What's the mission?" asked Shadow as she was in the office where missions are given out. She was with team 7 – of course – while the Hokage was sitting behind a long table filled with business men who collect the funds from the clients. Iruka was also sitting next to the Hokage to list out the missions.<p>

The Hokage blew some smoke and answered, "Your mission is just a simple escort, a C-rank mission."

Naruto gawked at him, "What! A C-ra-!" He was suddenly hit on the head by Kakashi and he fell flat on his face on the floor.

"Will you put a lid on it?" asked Kakashi with a groan. It was obvious that he was losing his patients with Naruto and his loud complaints.

Shadow softly glared at Kakashi and gave him a look, "Was that really necessary?"

He just shrugged his shoulders at her.

She anime sweat drop at him, *That is sooo mature…*

The Hokage cleared his throat to get their attention back and then he said "And the client has requested for you, Shadow, to escort him."

Before Shadow could ask who it was, Kakashi intrude. "And **who** is this client?" he asked with a growl.

Shadow couldn't help but to smirk at him and wondered if he was a little jealous of another man wanting her as an escort. The people around were curious of why Kakashi was acting like this but some were softly smirking with an arched brow.

The Hokage crossed his hands together and answered, "Why don't you see him for yourself?"

They suddenly heard the side slide door being opened so everyone turned their heads to see a middle age man with a long grey beard while wearing nice decorative clothes.

Shadow instantly recognized him and mumbled in surprise, "Lord Garu?"

Lord Garu, the Lord of the Land of the Wolves, smiled at her. Making even more wrinkles on his face. "Hello again, Shadow. I trust you have been well since the last time we met."

She bowed her head to him in respect, "Yes I have. How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine, thank you."

Naruto was still on the floor but was sitting this time while rubbing his head where Kakashi hit him. He was curious while looking between the two so he asked them. "How do you know each other?"

They both stared down at him.

Lord Garu didn't hesitate to tell the tale though, "Shadow here was once my best body guard but only temporally, unfortunately. I even asked her to take my place but she refused."

Shadow then quickly apologized to him, "Forgive me, Lord Garu, but you must understand why I have done so."

"Yes, yes, but it's a shame. You would have been a great Lady of the Wolves."

Shadow only nodded as a thanking gesture while everyone else was staring at her in shock.

Naruto thought, *No way…Is she THAT powerful? I must have a private training with her to become Hokage!*

Sakura thought, *That is SO cool! Not only is she mysteriously beautiful but she is also powerful! I must have a private training with her! Sasuke won't be able to ignore me if I'm like her!*

Sasuke thought, *I need to get a private training with her! I don't trust her but she may help me to take my revenge on Itachi!* He glanced at his other two teammates and noticed the same look in their eyes as they stared at Shadow. *I bet they're thinking the same thing. I must have that private training first before the others!*

Kakashi was absolutely speechless; both orally and mentally as he stared at the woman he's actually with.

*I can't believe that I'm actually with this woman…? How does someone like me be with someone like her?* he asked himself as he stared at the woman right before him.


	14. Amulet

Lord Garu entered his fancy carriage. After he closed the door and sat comfortable inside, Shadow appeared by his window to say, "I have to get something quick. You go on a head. I'll catch up with you later."

Lord Garu nodded, "Very well." He glanced at the other team members and he found Naruto amusing when he was crying about something that this mission is going to be a piece of cake. He softly asked Shadow before she could take off to whatever she needed to do.

"Is he always like that?"

She gave him an arched curious brow until he nodded towards Naruto. She glanced at him as well and let out a small soft laugh. She turned her gaze to him with a reassuring expression, "Don't worry. He may not look like it but he's a good ninja. Learning and annoying but still good."

He murmured to her thoroughly as he turned his gaze back to Naruto. "…I'll trust your judgment on that but I'm more worried that he'll attract unwanted mercenaries if he keeps talking that loud."

She let out a small chuckle, "Don't worry. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

Lord Garu let out a small laugh as well then nodded to her, "We'll see you up ahead." He sat back on his seat and pulled the curtains over the window.

Shadow turned around to walk towards Kakashi who was watching Naruto being ballistic again as he was shouting nonsense while scanning the area of 4 feet from the gate. When she got to his side, she touched his arm softly to get his attention.

"Kakashi," she started.

He turned his attention to her, "Shadow, what is it?" he asked casually.

"I have to get something quick from my apartment. You guys will head on. I'll catch up with you later."

He replied, "All right. But we'll make a slow pace so you won't have to get that far."

She softly smirked behind her mask and she crossed her arms as she was trying to act angry. "Are you saying I'm slow?"

He smirked back, "No. But I'm worried that you won't be able to see me soon if I get that far. I wouldn't want to burden you with that."

She let out a small laugh, "Ha! How charming of you, Hatake."

He shrugged his shoulders, "It's a gift. The ladies can't resist."

"Hmm, you're right about that." She took a step closer to him so their bodies were just an inch away from each other.

Sakura noticed the two adults standing quite close to each other. She couldn't help but to let out a small squeal and tugged Sasuke's shirt to get his attention without leaving her eyes off the couple. "Sasuke-kun, look!" she whispered to him with excitement as he was looking at the distant.

Sasuke groaned mentally as he was expecting her to point something out to try to make a conversation with him. But when he turned around and saw what she was looking at, he was surprised. He was surprised to see his teacher standing so close to Shadow. He could also see that they were flirting as well.

He narrowed his eyes at them in suspicion, "Don't tell me…" he muttered under his breath as something clicked in his mind. It also clicked in Sakura's mind as her cheeks slightly flushed and her eyes twinkled in delight.

"Do you think they're together…in secret?" she asked Sasuke without a doubt with excitement.

"It's not very secretive if you ask me…" Sasuke grumbled with a small anime sweat drop as Kakashi leaned slightly closer to whisper something in Shadow's ear. And he was playfully pushed back by her after that.

Naruto didn't know what was going on because he was still 'scanning' the area with enthusiasm.

* * *

><p>Shadow noticed the two Genin watching them so she took a step back to make a clear distant with Kakashi. She cleared her throat to try to get her mind back in gear. She nearly had forgotten why she had to go.<p>

"Well…I'll see you later then." She made a hand sign and disappeared in a shroud of shadows.

Kakashi sighed heavily after she left. He turned his head and caught his two students looking at him, with amusement expressions.

"…what?" he asked but he regretted asking that question.

Sakura squealed loudly like a little fan-girl and said with such enthusiasm, "Are you and Shadow together!"

Kakashi flinched, *Oh crap. She's going to kill me for sure…* he mentioned towards Shadow. He said to his two curious students as they were waiting for his answer. "I don't see how my personal life is your business, no offense. But I would like to keep it in private."

Sasuke scoffed, "You're not making it seem like a private matter. You were making it obvious a few seconds ago."

"…I was?" he asked as he scratched the back of his head.

Sakura nodded without hesitation, "Definitely!"

Kakashi sighed heavily and he dropped his hand to his side. He whispered to them, "Look, I'll make you a deal, all right? Don't speak a word about us and I'll pay for lunch."

Sakura and Sasuke glanced at each other then turned back to their teacher. "With special treats?" asked Sakura with a small smirk.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes at her, "Really?" he asked her so flatly with a hint of annoyance.

Sasuke said, "Take it or leave it."

Kakashi groaned deeply, "Fine." He rubbed the back of his neck as he was glaring in the distant while his two students were smirking up at him. "Come on. We have to reach the Lands of Wolves before night fall." He glanced at his students, "And will you stop smirking at me!"

* * *

><p>Shadow looked through the apartment and she had finally found what she had been looking for. It was under the bed and she was beginning to think that she may have lost it forever.<p>

"Phew, that was close…" she mumbled under her breath as she was kneeling on the wooden floor with the precious amulet in her hands. She had this amulet for as long as she could remember and she cherished it dearly because she had no memory of her true past but her name. Her name was engraved at the back of the amulet but she had no idea what her heritage was.

The amulet was gold, in a form of a circle with three triangles entertaining together inside the circle. It also had a beautiful sapphire gem in the middle of the three triangles.

Shadow presumed that it was a gift when she was born but unfortunately she had no memory of her real family.

For now, she was glad that she had finally found it. When she realized that it wasn't hanging around her neck as she should, she nearly went ballistic but she kept her emotions down as always but it was quite tempting for her not to run her ass off to her apartment and tear everything down until it was found.

She put the amulet around her neck and tied the knot properly. She put the amulet safely inside her clothes and thought *Time to catch up with the others.*


	15. No

It had been 30 minutes since Team 7 left the village with the carriage. Sakura looked over her shoulder to still see the village Gates. She also wondered where Shadow could be. Then she suddenly gasped when something dark appeared beside her.

It was a shroud of shadows and Shadow herself came out of it.

Naruto beamed when he saw her, "Shadow!"

Shadow simply waved, "Hey." Then she looked up ahead to see Kakashi reading the book. He must have read that three times by now. Typical of him to re-read that blasted book.

She walked a bit faster to reach the carriage's side and she knocked the door politely. The curtains were pushed back and Lord Garu's face appeared.

"Yes?" he asked.

"Sir, don't you think it would be easier to…pick up the pace? The quicker we get there the better."

"If this carriage goes any faster, I'll be bumping my head around the carriage."

She let out a small laugh, "We wouldn't want that to happen, would we?" Then she looked at him solemnly, "Seriously though, I could sense some bandits coming towards us. We should really hurry up to avoid a brutal fight."

Everyone turned their heads to her surprisingly.

Kakashi said to her, "You can sense them this far?"

She nodded, "Yes. They're 15 miles away at the west from us. And they're in large numbers."

Naruto grinned widely and he punched in his hand with determination, "Awe! We can handle a bunch of bandits!"

Shadow looked at him flatly, "Really? Well, how about 150 bandits? Can you handle that much?"

The Genin's jaw dropped in disbelief as they stared at her. Sakura stuttered as she repeated, "1-150 bandits? That has never been that many before…"

"Yes. But someone must have tipped them off about this mission. We best to hurry it up before they can reach us."

Kakashi clapped his book shut with a solemn expression. He safely placed the book inside his pouch and said to Lord Garu, "You best buckle yourself up. We're running."

Lord Garu sighed in misery, "Very well…" he mumbled and then he closed the curtains.

Shadow paced up a bit to tell the driver, "You ready?"

The driver was a middle age man and he looked nervous. But he nodded.

She nodded, "Good." She looked over her shoulder to the Genin, "Try to keep up, okay? We're running all the way."

The three of them groaned in misery.

Shadow just ignored their quiet protests and shouted, "Come on!" She already started to run ahead of the others.

The driver quickly demanded the two black stallions to run and Team 7 dashed while surrounding the carriage; just to be safe and certain for Lord Garu.

Kakashi quickly paced up to run beside Shadow and he asked her while whispering, "Are you certain they're after us?"

She nodded without hesitation, "No doubt."

He narrowed his visible eye at her, "You don't think we can take them?"

"Trust me. I don't want to risk involving Garu into the battle. There are too many, too many distractions from protecting Lord Garu. I want to get through this mission smoothly."

Kakashi didn't say a word and just continued to run.

* * *

><p>Naruto panted heavily as they finally slowed down before the gates of the Lord Garu's village. He panted heavily while he doubled over and used his knees as support. His other teammates were panting heavily as well with sweats running down from their brow.<p>

Sakura couldn't hold herself anymore and collapsed on her knees, "I-I'm so…so tired…" she said through panting.

Even Kakashi was a little out of breath. *Damn, haven't been a while since I run that long…Argh…my feet are killing me…*

They had been running for more than 8 hours straight.

However Shadow didn't seem tired at all. She was looking at the distance at the trail to see if any bandits have followed them, but so far none. But there was a bad feeling inside her gut.

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned her head to see Kakashi looking at her with concern. "What's up?" he asked her.

She sighed softly and looked back at the distant. "I just have a feeling that they are still following us…"

"It doesn't matter anymore. We're safe now. They wouldn't infiltrate a well-protected village."

"…" she knew that but she also wanted to let out some steam. It had been a while since her last fight. She turned her head to look at him, "I'm going to deal with them. Just to be on the safe side."

Before she could go, she was stopped by Kakashi holding her shoulder so firmly. He spun her around so she was facing him and he held her arms tightly. "Alone? Are you crazy! 1 against 150 bandits! I don't think so!"

The three Genin turned their heads to the two adults because of Kakashi's uprising voice of protest.

Shadow glared up at him for getting their attention, "Kakashi, shut your mouth. Now. They're looking at u-!"

"Sakura and Sasuke already know!"

Her glare hardened, "What?" she asked with a growl.

He quickly explained to her, "They've figured it out themselves. But that doesn't matter! I'm not going to let you go out there to get yourself killed!"

Enough is enough!

She pushed his arms away and grabbed the collar of his Jounin jacket. Then they both suddenly disappeared in a shroud of shadows.

Sakura mumbled, "Oh boy…he's screwed."

Sasuke nodded in agreement.

Naruto however looked very confused, "Will somebody tell me what's going on!"

* * *

><p>Shadow and Kakashi appeared in a thick forest on a high branch. She pushed him against the trunk of the tree and shouted, "What the hell is your problem, Kakashi! I thought we made it clear that we keep our relationship a secret!"<p>

Now, he felt pissed off because she couldn't see the concern he was having for her when she said that she was going after those bandits. She was treating him like a backstabber!

He glared at her as he growled while trying to control his anger. He was slowly failing, "I didn't break any damn promises! They figured them out themselves! But that doesn't matter! I don't want to see you marching your way to your grave! I don't know why the **fuck** would you want to do that!" His voice rose after each word.

She sent him a deathly glare but he returned the favor. She stomped towards him and shouted, "Because I want to kill them myself! I **need** to steam off!"

He couldn't believe it! She wanted to kill them herself just to _steam off_! This is the most ridiculous excuse he had ever heard in his entire life! Even he knew how to make a better excuse than **that**!

He shouted, "That's such a spineless ridiculous excuse I've ever heard!" He really couldn't hold down his anger any more.

And it seemed Shadow couldn't hold hers down as well.

"Well I don't give a shit about what you think, Hatake! I really need to steam off! And I'm not going to let some scarecrow to ruin it!"

She was going to leave him by disappearing but he quickly grabbed her shoulders, spun her and pushed her against the trunk roughly.

"No!" he shouted as he was a close to her.

"Kakashi, if you don't let me go, I swear I'll-!" She was suddenly cut off when Kakashi brought both of their masks down in a flash and crashed his lips on hers.

She muffled as she tried to push him away but he pressed his body against her on the trunk, making things more difficult. The kiss wasn't helping either because he was kissing her so hungrily, so passionately.

Ordeyna now started to feel vulnerable again and she gave in the kiss. He became less forceful on the kiss and the kiss turned tenderly and slowly.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and he slowly slid down so he was on his knees with her against the trunk without leaving each other's lips.

Kakashi softly pulled away and leaned his forehead against hers as they both panted heavily.

They both were quiet but no words were needed. It felt peaceful, relaxing, just sitting there while sitting in each other's arms.

Ordeyna slowly made eye contact with Kakashi and they both just stared into each other's eyes as if they could read each other's thoughts.

He sighed heavily, "I know you're a stubborn woman…but I'm not going to let you go…_alone_."

She started to shook her head, "No, no, no. I'm not going to drag you into this."

"I'm **going**. And that's **final**."


	16. Fight

"Look, this is crazy! You should be with the Genin!" Shadow tried to persuade him, one more time, but Kakashi was being so stubborn to fall back.

They were hiding in the trees with their chakras low and they were spying over the campsite of the group that had been following them.

Kakashi softly glared at her with his visible eye and softly growled at her, "We're not going to argue about this **again**. I'm with you until this is done."

Shadow felt annoyed but also felt turned on by his demonic side. *Damn stubborn scarecrow.* But a very sexy scarecrow. She didn't know why but she just did find it attractive, even though it pissed her off.

She grabbed her black katana and said, "Just don't get in my way, Hatake."

He looked at her flatly, "Again with the surname crap? Do you know we're a couple?"

She glared at him from the corner of her eyes, "In secret."

He pointed out though, "Plus Sasuke and Sakura know about us. And pretty soon Naruto will know. Damn, imagine how he'll brag about this when we get back."

She groaned deeply and growled at him, "Okay. Now I want to kill **you** instead."

Before Kakashi could say a word, a kunai was thrown past him with an inch away from his face. "Intruders!" cried out the rogue ninja who spotted them.

Kakashi quickly did some hand-signs for a fire-jutsu. He breathed in deeply, ***Fire-style, fire ball jutsu**!* And cast the fire ball jutsu at the rogue ninjas below. When he turned to look at Shadow, she was already gone.

"Hey, where did she go?" he muttered before he had to doge two kunai attacks from the side. "Shit," he cursed under his breath as he quickly pulled out his own kunai.

Shadow quickly dealt with the remaining rogue ninjas in a flash. Whenever someone tried to cut her head off, she would disappeared in a shroud of shadows but regain back in the battle as if nothing happened. During the battle, she felt free and satisfied but her mind was slightly occupied of Kakashi's well-being.

That is why she didn't want to bring him. She didn't want any distractions, but no, the man was too damn stubborn to fall back from her warnings.

After cutting down the last man, she looked over her shoulder to where she left Kakashi. Soon she saw five lifeless bodies being dropped down from the trees and they landed on the ground with a loud _thud_. She sheathed her katana on her back just as Kakashi jumped down from the tree.

He looked around the ground filled with dead bodies of the rogues. He utterly felt pity of those he fell from Shadow's blade. He asked her, "Was this _really_ necessary?"

She softly glared at him and growled, "Yes. They would have died anyway. We just shorten their dues."

"But if you had listened to me, they wouldn't have come to attack us. Their deaths aren't really necessary to be taken."

Her hands turned into tight fists as she glared at the living man before her hard, "Don't lecture me, Hatake! I gave them a painless merciful death! This is part of being a shinobi!"

He glared at her, "But there was no need to take all of their lives!"

"And how many lives have **they** slaughtered, Hatake! Answer me that!" she shouted as she mentioned towards the dead rogues.

She could feel her blood boiling hot under her skin as she glared at him. She didn't know why he suddenly felt pity towards them. And this may be the second reason why she didn't want to bring him: judgment.

Kakashi was silent this time and he stared at the death corpses around his feet while the grass was being covered by their blood. It was utterly a massacre but Shadow had a point. How many lives have the rogues taken? How many innocents have they slaughtered?

His guess was millions.

Shadow breathed in deeply to calm herself. She hated to argue with him. Now the air was getting tense as none of them spoke a single word. They could barely hear their breaths.

She asked him more calmly, "You know the way back?" but she said it with a hint of ice, though she didn't mean to.

"…yes." He answered but he wasn't looking at her.

"…Right. I'll see you back at the mansion."

Before she could disappear, Kakashi asked her, "Where are you going?"

She glanced at him and saw that he still refused to look at her. She sighed heavily and answered, "I need…to be alone for a while." Shadow quickly then teleported away from the spot.

Kakashi stood there alone with the dead corpses and sighed heavily. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and muttered sarcastically to himself, "Way a go, Hatake…"

Now he felt guilty for scolding her. He didn't mean to upset her. It just…happened. He pulled his hand from his face to hang lazily by his side. He looked at the direction of the Genin. "I better get back before they send a search party. I wonder where Shadow would go…" he muttered the last part in deep thought.

He wondered if he should go after her, to apologize to her. But another part of him screamed to leave her alone; to give her space to think about. He wouldn't want to make her angrier than she is now.

* * *

><p>Kakashi entered the mansion where Lord Garu was staying and he was immediately greeted by Naruto. The first question Naruto asked was, "Hey, where's Shadow-sensei?" He stopped in front of Kakashi with curiosity in his blue eyes. Soon his comrades appeared out of one of the doorways.<p>

Kakashi hesitated to answer Naruto and then said, "She…has something to do."

Naruto tilted his head to the side and asked, "Really?" What is it?"

"It's…quite personal, Naruto. She'll come back…eventually."

He walked past Naruto and then stopped. He nervously looked at his Genin over his shoulder and asked, "Um…where is my room?"

Naruto appeared by his side and grabbed his wrist, "Follow me, sensei!"

* * *

><p>Hours later…<p>

Kakashi had been pacing back and forth in the bedroom he was shown by Naruto and offered. Shadow hadn't returned from…wherever she went. She had been gone for hours. It was making him to worry sick for her. He had no idea where she went. If he knew where she had gone to, he would have gone after her after a minute she disappeared!

Then he stopped his pacing and grumbled, "Oh that is it!" He stomped towards the balcony. He pushed the window door to the side and felt relief to feel the cool air blowing against his hot skin. He looked down from the edge of the balcony to see the ground's not so far.

He jumped off the edge and landed on the ground. It scared some of the guards nearby, but when they realized that it was the Jounin who accompanied Lord Garu, they calmed down.

He walked down towards the street that accompanied with some villagers. It was already dark, perhaps around 7 pm. He scanned the area. He wondered what Shadow would do when she needs to…calm down.

If it was him, he would have gone to a bar to drink some sake until he was drunk as hell, but that would be more appropriate at home. So Shadow wouldn't get herself drunk during a mission but…you may never know.

Kakashi groaned deeply as he felt his head throbbing. He rubbed the side of his temple to calm down. He let out a small exaggerated sigh. He quickly did some hand-signs and stabbed his hand on the ground, "Summoning-jutsu!"

He stood up as the smoke slowly disappeared. It caught some interests from the villagers so they stood at the side and stared. The smoke disappeared to reveal Pakkun.

"What's up, boss?" asked Pakkun with a flat face.

Kakashi shoved his hands in his pockets and answered, "I need your nose to find Shadow. I don't know where she is."

Pakkun looked around and then said to Kakashi, "Where are we? This is not the Leaf."

"We're in Lord Garu's village, in the Land of Wolves."

Pakkun asked Kakashi, "What happened?"

Kakashi groaned deeply, "Do you really want to know?"

Pakkun nodded.

Kakashi sighed heavily, "We got into a fight. I don't want to tell you the details."

"You and Shadow got into a fight? Was it really that bad?"

Kakashi nodded, "It pissed off Shadow so much. She just left. Though, I would have done the same thing if I were in her shoes."

Pakkun sighed and shook his head in disapproval, "You humans are sometimes confusing…" he mumbled under his breath.

Kakashi glared down at the dog before him and growled, "Find her, Pakkun. Or else…I'll give you a bath immediately when we're back at the Leaf."

Pakkun looked up at his master wide eyed and growled, "Damn it…I hate baths."

"Then so help me…" Kakashi growled impatiently.

Pakkun glared at Kakashi before he asked, "Got anything of hers?"

"Um…" he scratched the back of his head nervously. "…no."

Pakkun anime sweat-dropped, "Then how in the blaze am I going to find her if I don't know her scent?"

Kakashi rubbed the back of his neck as he thought. Then he said to Pakkun, "Shadow has this unique scent of jasmine. Can you smell any jasmine?"

"Just so you know some women may wear some jasmine perfume…"

"But Shadow has a unique scent. It's really strong and attractive."

"Is that how you got attracted to her in the first place?"

"…I don't know. But maybe it was part of it."

Pakkun sighed heavily then sniffed the air. He closed his eyes and followed his nose. He turned towards a direction and said to Kakashi, "I…I smell…" His eyes shot open and he suddenly ran towards a direction. Purposely bumping through the people and Pakkun shouted "Get out of my way!"

Kakashi was shocked and quickly went after Pakkun as he apologized to the villages, "I-I'm sorry! Coming through!"


	17. Bar

Kakashi chased after Pakkun through the crowd and shouted "P-Pakkun, slow down! Where the hell are you going!" He asked as he carefully dodged a couple by jumping over them. He quickly apologized to them as they stared at him shockingly over their shoulders. "Sorry!"

Pakkun didn't reply and just continue to run down the street. Suddenly he entered a shop and Kakashi stopped as he heard loud voices and loud bashing objects from inside.

"H-Hey! Get out you mutt!"

"Ah! My cat!"

"Who the hell is going to pay all this!"

Pakkun suddenly came out from the shop while dragging a large dog bag with his teeth. Kakashi stared at the scene in disaster and he asked Pakkun frantically. "Pakkun, you were supposed to find Shadow! Not a dog bag!"

Pakkun released the dog bag and quickly went inside. Kakashi look to see Pakkun swimming inside while filling his mouth with it. He swallowed them and said to Kakashi "But, boss! These are the best dog treats in the world! I couldn't pass it up! It's also hard to find these!"

Kakashi was going to scowl his dog again until the owner of the pet shop suddenly appeared before him while holding a hand out. Kakashi sulked as he dug his hand in his pocket to take out his wallet and asked the payment.

After the pet shop owner snatched the money from Kakashi, he stomped back to his shop.

Kakashi glared down Pakkun and lifted him up from the back of his shirt. Pakkun squirmed and shouted "Let go of me, boss! I want to get back to my fantasy!"

Kakashi glared at his dog "If you won't help me find her, you won't see your precious dog bag." He knew that he was threatening Pakkun and he shouldn't, but he felt a dire need to find Shadow as soon as possible.

Pakkun growled at him like a real dog "You wouldn't dare."

"I would if you don't help me," Kakashi growled back.

Pakkun groaned deeply "Grrrr...Fine!" Kakashi placed him on the ground. Pakkun said to him sternly "But you better take it with you." He was mentioning towards the large dog bag. Seriously, he was saying it like it was a buried treasure but that might be acceptable for him since he's a dog.

Kakashi frowned deeply behind his mask and glanced at the very heavy looking dog bag. He asked Pakkun quite miserably "Do I really have to? It looks awfully heavy…" he tried to make up a good excuse to leave the bag here but Pakkun glared at him.

"Carry it or I won't help you."

"If you won't help me, I'll give these to the others."

"Now that's just unfair. Now, do you want to find your girlfriend or not?"

Kakashi sighed heavily and looked at the dog bag misery. "But it really, really looks heavy…How the hell could you **drag** it out here with your mouth? I'll never know…"

Pakkun said to him in annoyance "Just carry the bag…"

Kakashi groaned deeply "I'm going to get a sore back after this…" he grumbled. He gathered the dog bag in his arms and slowly lifted it up from the ground. He groaned "S-Shit! It's heavier than I thought!"

"Stop complaining! If I can **drag** it with my **teeth** then it won't be a problem with you."

"Just shut it already and find Shadow before I dump this bag **on** you!"

"Sheesh…you're edgy."

"_Pakkun_…!"

The ignorant dog finally gave him by crying "All right! All right!" He even put his paws up as a defensive gesture. He sniffed the air and followed the scent with Kakashi following while groaning of carrying the heavy dog bag, which earned many strange stares from the villagers. It was both embarrassing and painful.

* * *

><p>Pakkun stopped and said to Kakashi "She's in there, boss." Kakashi stopped and looked to see that they were standing before a bar that looked nearly secluded.<p>

"Huh…I should have known…" Kakashi mumbled to himself. Maybe they have more in common than he thought. He gladly dropped the dog bag on the floor. "Thanks, Pakkun."

Pakkun jumped when he heard the dog bag fell onto the floor and he shouted at Kakashi with steam coming out from his ears "Hey! Watch that! It's delicate!"

Kakashi rolled his eyes to his dog "Whatever, Pakkun. Now go home."

The dog sighed heavily and then bit the edge of the dog bag before disappearing. Kakashi sighed heavily again and then entered the bar. He scanned the dark bar to see very few people and there was no Shadow in sight. He scratched his head in confusion and wondered *Where is she…?* Then he noticed some familiar golden eyes staring at him from the far shadow corner before they disappeared. *And there she is…Argh, she looks so pissed off but it's too late to turn around now.*

He watched towards Shadow who was calmly drinking her sake and it was obvious that she was ignoring his presence when he first entered the bar. He sat down on the opposite side of her but he didn't say a word.

Until Shadow asked "Why are you here…?"

He was surprised to hear the dark tone of her voice but he guessed that he shouldn't be surprised of her being cold to him after their argument. He sighed heavily, leaned on his seat and answered "I came because I was worried."

"As you can see I'm fine. Now leave."

"No."

Shadow glared at him dangerously with her golden eyes. "You have 5 seconds to leave before I tear you apart."

He sighed heavily "You're drunk, aren't you?" He could smell the strong alcohol of sake in her breath as she talked to him and he could also see that her eyes were dilated.

She scowled at him "I'm no drunk, Hatake. I can still kill you if I wish to."

"You're not going to do that."

"And why the hell not?" she growled as she asked. She was already reaching her hand out towards her blades.

Kakashi sighed heavily and mumbled "I was hoping I wouldn't have to use this…"

"Wha-!" She was cut off when he quickly pushed his headband off and revealed her Sharingan to her. She stared at him in shocked as the Sharingan was hypnotizing her until she felt drowsy then fell unconscious. Kakashi quickly got off his seat to catch her before she could hit the ground.

He sighed heavily and said "Sorry." Then collect her in his arms, put some money on the counter and then stood up while carrying her bridle style. He walked out of the bar and thought *She's going to be really pissed off at me when she wakes up…*

* * *

><p>Ordeyna woken up the next morning and feel her head throbbing painfully. She shut her eyes quickly and groaned deeply. "Argh…my head…"<p>

Then she heard a soft familiar voice "Take these aspirin pills." She groggily opened her eyes to see Kakashi who was holding a hand of two aspirin pills and a glass of water with the other hand. She gladly took the pills and swallowed them while gulping her water.

She drank the whole water than passed it back to Kakashi. She held her head as she closed her eyes while taking in deep breathes. She heard some movement around the room and then felt the bed sinking. Then she felt a hand on her shoulder and she was softly pushed back on the soft bed. "You should sleep." She heard his soft voice.

She groaned softly as she snuggled her face on the pillow "You don't need to tell me so, you damn scarecrow…" she tiredly said.

She heard a soft deep chuckle before some more movement on the bed and a tender kiss on her forehead. "Just sleep, Ordeyna. You're gonna need it."

"I'll go to sleep if you shut up…"

"Now, now, don't be so harsh."

"'Harsh' my ass. I'm the one in pain here…"

"You're right. Now go to sleep or I'll make you."

"Argh…can't argue with you right now…I'll kick your ass later…"

Kakashi opened his mouth to say something back but held the urge down since she was already starting to sleep. He chuckled softly as he shook his head and then tucked her in more. He couldn't help but to watch her peacefully sleeping then leaned forward to give her another tender kiss on the forehead.

He softly whispered to her as he pushed some of her black raven hair away from her bare face "You're a really crazy beautiful woman, aren't you?"


	18. Nap

Ordeyna reopened her eyes then closed her eyes again. Her head was less throbbing than before and felt grateful and stupid. Grateful that there wasn't much pain in her head like before but felt stupid for drinking so much. She knew that she was going over her limits when she was at the bar, but she was so angry with Kakashi that she just had to drink some more to get her mind off him.

Speaking of the man, she turned her head to look at her side to see the man sleeping beside her. He was close enough for her to feel his breath against her face but he wasn't touching her like before. She sighed as she watched him sleep, though it would be better if his mask was off.

*Damn mask…* she thought angrily. She scooted closer and managed to hook a finger on his mask. She held still to wait if he was going to wake up. When he didn't, that encouraged her to slowly pull his mask down. She stopped right on the bridge of his nose but he still didn't wake up.

When he didn't, she finally pulled the darn mask to his chin. She pulled her fingers away as she examined his face. He looked absolutely handsome while sleeping, though his scarred eye caught her attention.

*I wonder how he got his Sharingan. And how did he get that scar…?*

She couldn't help but to scoot closer and pressed her lips softly against his. She was still for a moment and then she pulled away. But she didn't get far, because Kakashi quickly leaned forward to reclaim her lips into his. She yelped softly in surprise as he kissed her so…hungrily.

He licked the bottom of her lip to ask permission as he shifted in his position to get closer to her. She screamed mentally *He was…awake!* She was quickly falling into his spell and closed her eyes as she responded his kisses.

She could feel him smirking against his lips and he changed his position so she was hovering over her, trapped underneath him. She moaned softly as he massaged her tongue with his own and felt his hand caressing her cheek softly.

She was almost out of breath and he sensed it so he pulled away. They both panted as they hazily looked into each other's eyes, though Kakashi's Sharingan eye was closed since he would be wasting his chakra.

He pushed away some of her raven hair away from her face and asked "How are you feeling?"

"…Besides being squashed? I'm feeling better than before. You're heavier than you look."

He flatly looked at her and said as he sounded offense "Are you saying I'm fat?"

"I will if you don't get off me."

He rolled off her so he was lying on her side with his elbow prompt up "You're a very, very cruel woman. You broke my pride."

"Good to know." She jokingly replied with a small smile. Then she yawned softly and stretched her arms to the air. Then she realized that she was only wearing her inner clothes of her usual clothes. She glanced at the side to see her armor sitting at the corner with her weapons. She couldn't help but to say to Kakashi with a smirk "I bet you were enjoying stripping me off, Mr. Hatake."

He smirked back at her "That I won't argue with, Ordeyna."

She slightly shivered from the sound of her name coming out from his lips. It sent her heart leaping every time. It was quite distracting but enjoyable. She begged him "Please don't."

He looked confused now "Don't what?"

"Don't say my name like…" she waved her hand towards him "…that."

"Like what, Ordeyna?"

She point at him with an accusing finger "**That**. Just…don't."

He smirked "What's wrong with me saying your name? I think it's a lovely name. Ordeyna, Ordeyna…it's out of the ordinary."

She blushed as she looked away angrily "Stop it unless you want to get hurt." She gasped when she suddenly felt a hot breath against her cheek. She turned her head to say something to him, but it was a mistake. When she turned her head, her lips met with his.

She yelped in surprise and that gave him the opportunity to plunge his tongue inside her mouth. She gasped when he did but moaned softly as she kissed him back. She wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer as he rested his hands on her side to feel them. Before things could get any further, they suddenly heard a knock on their door.

Kakashi groaned deeply but he didn't pull away from the kiss, though Ordeyna was curious and she pulled away. She stared at the door and asked "Who do you think it is?"

Her chin was quickly cupped and forced her face to look at Kakashi's, "I don't give a damn. Now come here." He demanded before reclaiming her lips roughly. She moaned again and instantly forgotten about their guest.

She intertwined her fingers with his soft silver hair and hooked a bare leg around his waist to press his groin against hers. He groaned lowly at this and she could feel that he was…very excited. Then the door was knocked again but this time, louder. And they heard Naruto's voice from the other side "Hey! Sensei! Are you awake! Breakfast is ready!"

Kakashi groaned deeply and pulled away from the kiss to glare at the pounding door. "If he keeps knocking, I'm going to give him a harsh punishment for this."

She cupped her face and turned his head so he could look at her. She smiled up at him and said "Just answer the door, Kakashi. Besides, I'm hungry and Naruto won't leave until we answer. So go."

He sighed heavily and pushed off the bed to answer the door as he pulled his mask up. He pulled his shirt down to cover his evidence of excitement, wouldn't want to scare the Genin, would we? When he opened the door Naruto crossed his arms on his chest with a cross expression with his teammates standing behind him "Finally! That took you long enough, sensei! We're starving!"

Sakura started to scold him as usual "Naruto! Don't talk to Kakashi-sensei like that! Where's your respect!"She looked like she was ready to beat the crap out of him at any moment. It's like Naruto's a punching bag to her.

Kakashi leaned against the door and lazily said to them "Why don't you three head to breakfast first. I'll meet you there later."

The three arched a brow and Naruto asked on behalf of his teammates "Why?" He tried to look over Kakashi "And where's Shadow? Did she come back?"

Kakashi nodded "Yes, she's back. Right now she needs to rest. Now go you three. And try not to eat too much; we're going to train afterwards." The three Genin groaned deeply. Kakashi narrowed his eyes at them and said "Don't groan at me. Now go and have your breakfast, or no breakfast at all."

The three Genin flinched and they immediately ran down the hallway to the dining room. Kakashi knew that he was being a little harsh but he was moody because they disturbed his 'moment' with Ordeyna. He closed the door and returned to the bed where Ordeyna was sitting on.

She asked him "So…what are you going to do afterwards?"

"I'm going to train the Genin. Hopefully they won't vomit like the last time." He felt slightly sick from the memory.

"What happened?"

"Naruto ate so much breakfast at this one mission. I kept telling him not to, but of course he didn't listen to me. Then during our training, he vomited and couldn't move because he was food poisoned. I had to bring him to the hospital."

"Sakura and Sasuke?" she asked him.

"They were fine but Naruto. You know how he is."

She smirked "He's not so bad…I could see a bright future in him whenever I look at him."

Kakashi's gaze softened "You know not many people would say that. You don't…find him irritating as others do?"

She let out a small laugh "Oh I did, but despite of that I think he's a really good kid and I have a feeling that he'll be a great ninja."

He smiled at her "Glad we agreed on that." He then asked her "Want to go get some breakfast before it's all gone?"

She smirked at him and jumped off the bed "You don't really think that your Genin will eat the whole thing? Trust me, Lord Garu always have something spare to eat."

Before she could reach her armor, her wrist was grabbed "But first a kiss." He swung her towards him and crashed his exposed lips upon hers. She moaned softly and intertwined her fingers with his silver soft hair as he pressed her body against his.

* * *

><p>Naruto was wolfing down his breakfast while Sakura – who was sitting beside him – was staring at him in utter disgust. She growled at him "Naruto, please! Can't you eat your breakfast properly! Where are your manners!"<p>

Sitting on the other side of Sakura was Sasuke. He was eating his breakfast with good manners. They were the only three in the dining room. The servants said that Lord Garu doesn't eat breakfast and only drinks coffee.

Naruto swallowed the food in his mouth and said to Sakura with a big grin "I can't help it! This food is so good!"

"But that doesn't mean you have to eat it like a barbarian!"

He looked confused "What's a 'barbarian'?"

She groaned deeply "Argh…never mind."

Then the doors were opened. The Genin turned their heads to see their teachers entering the dining room. Sakura was the first to greet them with a wide smile "Morning!"

Shadow nodded to her "Morning, Sakura," she nodded to Sasuke and Naruto before taking her seat which is the opposite of Sakura. Kakashi took his seat next to Shadow and pulled out his book to read.

Sakura asked Kakashi "You're not going to eat?"

"Not hungry," was his only reply as he flipped a page. Shadow rolled her eyes and pulled her mask down before collecting some breakfast. The three Genin stared at her face until Kakashi said to them "You know staring is very impolite."

The Genin quickly looked away and they muttered "Sorry," but Sasuke.

Shadow bumped her knee against Kakashi's, signaling him that he's a bit too harsh on them. She wondered what got him moody.

* * *

><p>The Genin were meditating on the grassy field while their teachers were relaxing under a shadowed tree. Shadow was sitting next to Kakashi while watching the Genin while he was reading his book. She softly said to him "You're quite moody. What's up?"<p>

He glanced at her from the corner of his eye before returning his book "…I just don't feel so good today."

She examined him and then smirked when she realized the problem. She scooted closer so their bodies were nearly touching. She whispered in his ear "Is it because the Genin disturbed us?"

He didn't look at her and just nodded. Shadow giggled and then rested her head on his shoulder. He slightly went rigid and looked down at her confusing. "Shadow?" he asked with uncertainty.

"Hmm…" she closed her eyes as she felt at peace.

Kakashi glanced at the Genin whose backs was facing them and whispered to Shadow "I thought you said you wanted our relationship to be private."

"Well…there's no one around except the Genin. And they already know about us."

"Sakura and Sasuke know. Naruto, I'm not so sure."

She chuckled "But he'll know soon enough. So this is acceptable."

Kakashi's gaze softened as she was going to take a nap and her posture relaxed. He scooted a bit closer so her body was pressing against his and yawned softly. He placed his open book down on his chest and rested his head softly on hers. *Shit…I didn't realize how tired I was…I guess I shouldn't have been watching Ordeyna all night…*

* * *

><p>Sakura was getting tired of being in the same position for two hours. She was really bored and she let out an exaggerating sigh. She turned her head to ask her teachers "Kakashi-sensei, how long do we have to do thi-!" She was cut off when she saw something shockingly.<p>

Sakura quickly said to her teammates who were still meditating "Guys! Guys! Look!" Both boys opened their eyes to look at the female teammate with an arched brow. She was grinning widely while pointing at where their teachers were. When they turned their heads around, they were shocked.

Naruto screamed "I knew i-!" His mouth as immediately slapped shut by Sakura as she glared at him with deadly eyes.


	19. Saideku

Ordeyna started to wake up because she could hear Sakura giggling, though she was trying to cover it up. She opened her eyes to see the three Genin crowded around her with curious expressions. She asked them quite grouchily "What are you looking at?"

Naruto flinched and quickly took a step back from surprise, "N-Nothing!"

Shadow rolled her eyes and yawned. She asked them "Why you three are here and not out there meditating as you're told?"

"But we've been meditating for hours, Shadow-sensei!" whined Naruto loudly with a big pout.

Shadow stretched her arms in the air and nudged Kakashi hard in the rib which successfully woke him up. "Ow! What the hell was that for!" he asked Shadow as he rubbed the side where she nudged him painfully.

She softly glared at him from under her hood and pointed at the Genin "Deal with them. You're their sensei."

Kakashi softly glared at her and grumbled "Is that it?"

"Just deal with them, Hatake."

Kakashi groaned deeply and said to the Genin "You three can go home. But don't say a word about **this**." He mentioned the relationship between Shadow and him. Thankfully the Genin nodded.

Naruto pressed his hand over his heart and exclaimed "Don't worry! You're secret is safe with me! Believe it!"

Shadow looked at Sakura to give her a look "Make sure he keeps his promise. Please!" Sakura thankfully nodded. Sakura nodded and then she blushed furiously when she glanced at Sasuke who still looked disbelief as he looked between Shadow and Kakashi.

"Sasuke-kun…" Sakura started while she continued to blush and played with her fingers. Sasuke tore his eyes from the adults to Sakura. "…I was wondering…if you would like to eat some dinner with me. Maybe we could eat some sushi and get to know each other." She asked him out without meeting him in the eyes, because she knew that she would faint.

Sasuke didn't say a word while Naruto had anime tears running down from his eyes. Sasuke looked away from her, stood up and walked away while shoving his hands in his pockets "No thanks. I'm not in the mood."

Sakura looked surprised and sadly watched him walking away. She looked at the ground sadly while Naruto was looking between Sasuke and Sakura. He scooted closer to Sakura and said "I can go with you, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura looked annoyed however and punched Naruto in the face "In your dreams!" Naruto skid to the ground from her punch and he twitched.

Shadow thought *Oh, poor guy.* And saw Sakura walking away, but she was going to the same direction where Sasuke went. Shadow sighed heavily and mumbled "She'll never give up, will she?"

Kakashi shook his head "Nope. I don't see why girls would enter an academy of ninja just to get a boy's attention."

"I know. But maybe Sakura will be a fine Kunouchi when she grows up. She is rather intelligent for her age."

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders "I guess so." He stood up from the ground and cracked his back.

Shadow smirked and asked "What's the matter, _old man_?" She stood up from the ground and caught a glare from him.

"I am not an old man, Shadow. I'm just…tired."

"Hmm-mmm. Well that silver hair of yours isn't helping either."

Kakashi glanced up at his spiky silver hair and rolled his visible eye at her. "Look, I was born with silver hair, all right? That doesn't mean I'm old. I'm only 26."

Shadow shrugged her shoulders to him uncaringly "Whatever you say, old man." She was going to walk away but then she suddenly felt strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind and she was brought into a hard chest.

"If you keep calling me that, I'm just going to have to punish you," Kakashi whispered in her ear seductively.

Shadow smirked at him and asked "Are you trying to seduce me, Hatake?"

He smirked back at her "If I am?" He softly kissed her neck through his mask but she could feel it, thus is made her to shiver in delight in his arms.

Suddenly they both heard "EEEEEWWW! Stop it! My eyes!" Shadow and Kakashi shot their eyes opened when they realized that Naruto was still here. They both turned their heads to see Naruto covering his eyes from the scene. Naruto cried out in horror "Seriously! I'm scarred for life!"

Kakashi sighed heavily and Shadow blushed softly behind her mask. Shadow said to Naruto "You know you could go home now."

"And let you two continue to…Argh, I can't even think about it!" He continued to cover his eyes while his cheeks were flushed.

Shadow turned her attention to Kakashi who was still holding her in his arms, "This is your entire fault, Hatake."

He flinched and stared down at her surprisingly "My fault? How is this my fault?"

"If it wasn't for you and that perverted head of yours, he wouldn't be scarred."

"Hey! You were enjoying is as I might recall! I thought he was still unconscious!"

Shadow sighed heavily and glanced at Naruto to see that he's still here. Honestly, how long does it take to get the idea to get the hell out of here? She said to Naruto "If you don't want to see me kissing him, then you better get out of here."

Naruto removed his hands from his eyes as he looked at them surprisingly "What? You mean Kakashi's going to kiss you without the mask?"

"Nope, I'm going to kiss him through our masks. Care to watch?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around Kakashi's neck after she turned around in his arms to face him. He grinned down at her and leaned forward towards her face.

Just when their lips were just an inch away from each other, Naruto screamed "I'm out of here!" He quickly did a hand sign and disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Both Shadow and Kakashi let out a small laugh together.

He said to Shadow "You're being so mean to him, Ordeyna-chan."

She shrugged her shoulders to him with a smile "Hey, I warned him, didn't I?" She grabbed his hand and led him towards the direction of the village. "Come on. Let's get something to eat. I'm starving."

* * *

><p>While Shadow and Kakashi were walking down the road through the village to get something to eat, they suddenly heard a big bang like an explosion coming from the village. Everyone stopped and turned their attention to the gate where the explosion came from, and saw smoke rising from it.<p>

"What the…?" mumbled Kakashi in surprise of an attack at this hour.

Shadow stared at it wide eyed before she was suddenly dashing towards the rising smoke. "Shadow!" cried out Kakashi before he ran after her.

Shadow slowed down once she reached the Gates and as she had thought, her worst nightmare had come for her. There was a large group of men wearing uniformed armors while a man who stand out a little more and she recognized the man to be the one she avoided to see for years.

His name was Saideku Kironko.

Saideku shouted at the Leaf shinobis who surrounded them "I know she's here! Bring her to me, now!"

"Who the hell are you talking about! And who the hell are you!" demanded Kotetsu as he had a kunai out.

"I'm speaking of Shadow who resides in this village! I'm the Heir of the Kironko Clan in the Land Of Iron!"

The Hokage soon stepped forward and asked Saideku "What does Shadow have to deal with you? She's part of the village now."

Saideku smirked in amusement and shifted in position so most of his weight was on his left leg. "Is that so…" he said with amusement lingering in his voice. He was a stubborn man. Many would say he was handsome and many women would die to be with him. Shadow couldn't understand why he wanted her. She did a business with him by assassinating a rival of his. After she was paid, he sent her gifts and offers that many women would gladly take.

But Shadow refused which enraged him. He wanted her to be his wife! That's way beyond the business boundaries! She wanted nothing to do with him besides business. She ran away from him, but ever since then, her head was wanted but alive to be brought back to him as soon as possible.

That's why she wouldn't say in one place too long…until now.

Kakashi appeared by her side and softly asked her "Is he the one you've been running away from?" Shadow nodded to him.

Saideku's amusing smirk disappeared and it was replaced by frustration "Okay, play time is over. You either give me Shadow or I'll search the village for her."

"You have no right! I am the Hokage of the village and Shadow is my responsibility! What do you want with her?"

Saideku smirked widely "She is my future bride. Now bring her here."

The Hokage looked surprised and then scowled him "Even so, if she chose to not be with you, then I won't force her to. She doesn't involve you. So please, leave this village, peacefully before I take drastic measures."

Shadow flinched and cursed under her breath "Oh shit…"

Saideku asked the Hokage "That's your final answer?"

"…yes."

Saideku sighed heavily "Very well…" He suddenly turned his eyes into a hard glare at the Hokage then suddenly shot out a rope of chains towards a little girl from the crowd and pulled her towards him.

"No!" the mother cried out and tried to run after her child but a few villagers held her back.

"Mommy!" cried out the little girl who couldn't be more than six was held hostage by Saideku.

Saideku shouted in demand "One last chance! Bring me Shadow or this girl suffers and your village will be in flames before the day ends!"

The Hokage was going to say something but then Shadow appeared by his side. She shouted at Saideku "Let the girl go first!"

Saideku looked pleased to see her "Shadow, sweetheart, I'd knew you'd come."

"Against my damn will…" she muttered under her breath while glaring at him. She glanced at the Hokage and gave him the expression that she will handle it from here. She also glanced over her shoulder to Kakashi to see that he looked at her worriedly.

She turned her attention to Saideku and repeated "Let the girl, Saideku! Leave them out of this! This is between you and me!"

"So you finally came to your senses to be with me."

"No. Willing I wouldn't give a damn about you. But I can't let an innocent life be taken away under my problems."

"Then come with me and I'll let the girl go."

Shadow's jaw tightened but she walked towards Sadeku while everyone's eyes were watching her. She reached him and he wrapped an arm around her waist just as he released the girl. The girl quickly ran to her mother while bawling "Mommy!"

"Kiochi!" cried out her mother as she and her child embraced each other.

Saideku nuzzled his face close to hers and she pulled away from him harshly while glaring at him. "You put some paper bombs around the village, didn't you?"

Saideku looked surprised, but he quickly looked amused "And how did you know that?"

Shadow smirked behind her masks. Soon she dug her hands to pull out deactivated bomb tags from her pouch to show it to him, "Because your spies did a terrible job of planting them in the village discreetly before you came."

He was going to say something but she quickly turned around and punch him in the face. He skidded on the ground from the impact while Shadow was staring at him quite comfortable and everyone else was watching the scene shockingly.

Saideku groaned as he propped up with his elbow. He rubbed his jaw and glared at Shadow. "You're going to pay for that…" he growled at her and he stood up from the ground.

Shadow quickly pulled out her katana and went into fighting stance while facing him "If it's a fight, then fine. I'm getting tired of running away anyway."

He smirked at her as he pulled out his rope of chains that was connected at the bottom of his sword "Why? Were you scared of me?"

"More like thinking that you're not worth to fight with. But I couldn't let anyone else to get involve in my business."

Saideku smirk fallen and growled at her "Not 'worth' it…" He suddenly charged towards her and she stood in her place.

He swung his weapon at her but she quickly jumped high in the air. But he quickly turned around and threw his chain at her. It wrapped around her waist and he pulled her down to the ground hard. She banged on the ground hard and she groaned from the hard impact.

Then she suddenly poof into cloud smokes. "What the!" he exclaimed before he quickly scanned the area. Suddenly hands shot out from the ground which grabbed his ankles.

"**Earth-Style: Head hunter jutsu!**" Saideku was quickly pulled to the ground until his head.

Shadow emerged from the ground and felt thankful that Saideku wasn't a ninja like her. *That was faster than I thought,* thought Shadow as she dusted her hands off while staring down at the headed Saideku with a proud smile behind her mask.

Suddenly his men made a path and a man on a horse she had never seen came trotting towards her. But he had some similar features with Saideku. He stopped his horse before Shadow and smirked down at the headed Saideku.

"What did I tell you, Saideku? Don't mess with Shadow the Assassin. You're going too far with your games, little brother." Saideku glared up at him but he didn't say a word.

"Shut up, Bujento, and help me out here," Saideku growled up at his older brother.

Bujento scoffed and turned his attention to Shadow "I apologize for my brother's…misbehavior. I hope he hasn't waste any of your time."

"Besides having my head as bounty and running my life around the world? I'm good."

Bujento sighed heavily "I told him that he was getting too far…" he turned to glare down at Saideku. "You're going to get an earful from Father when we return home, little brother. And that's final." He looked at Shadow with sincere apologies cleared in his eyes. "Again, I apologize for his behavior. I'll be certain that he doesn't bother you, or anyone else, ever again."

He turned his attention to his own men which were wearing brighter uniform armors. "Get him out of the ground," he ordered them as he nodded towards Saideku.

His men nodded and quickly went to Saideku to dig him out. Once he was free he was dragged away from them while he looked furious.

Bejento turned his attention to Shadow "Shadow," he formally said her name with a nod as his goodbye.

"My Lord," Shadow replied with a nod as thanks and fare well. Soon he and the rest of the men left the village. But the villagers around them continued to linger. Registering of what just happened.

*I knew I should have dealt him long ago…Though I didn't know he had an older brother…* thought Shadow. She suddenly felt a tap on her shoulder so she turned around to see the Hokage.

"I know it's none of my business, but what just happened?"

"Um…Let's just say that I've got ridden the reason to move around. That's all I'm going to say."


	20. Angel

Kakashi went to Shadow's side after the villagers returned to their business. Kakashi said to her "That was...unexpected to put it lightly. I was expecting someone...more..."

"Superior?" asked Shadow to finish his incomplete sentence. Kakashi nodded. Shadow sighed heavily and explained to him "I didn't want to deal with him in the first place. He wasn't worth my time and I needed to do my job."

"But how did you two meet? He seemed to be so...obsessed with you."

"I did nothing to get his attention. I only did a business with him by assassinating a rival of his years ago." She crossed her arms on her chest "But after the job was done, he asked for my hand. I refused and so I ran away. He was furious when he heard the news and made a bounty on my head to bring me to him alive."

Kakashi sighed "Well...At least you don't have to worry about him now."

"True..." she smirked and walked a bit closer to him.

He arched a brow at her actions as she grabbed his hand "Shadow...?" He had no idea what she was doing, but he could tell that she was smirking at him behind her black mask.

"Now that's over...I don't see the reason to hide us anymore."

His visible eye widened in surprise "Sha-!" He was cut off when Shadow quickly leaned forward to kiss his lips with their masks still on. His eye widened once more in surprise and could hear some gasps from the sides. But he quickly responded by kissing back, but the mask prevent him from really kissing her.

Shadow pulled away and looked at the side to see a lot of the villagers staring at them with shocked expressions. She asked them quiet bitterly "Is there something you want? You know, staring is impolite." The villagers quickly succumbed to their senses and returned to their own business.

Kakashi chuckled and rested his hands on her waist "Don't you think you're being a bit too...harsh? After all, I'm quite surprised myself."

Shadow arched a brow at him "And why is that?"

He shrugged his shoulders "Well...It's just that...before you seemed very...persistent to keep us a secret."

"That's because I wanted you to be safe. I didn't want anyone else to be hurt by my problems."

His eyes softened and he quickly leaned forward to peck her. He pulled away and wrapped an arm around her. This time she didn't seem to mind. He asked her "Now, can we head to eat some lunch? I'm starving."

"Lead the way."

* * *

><p>It was just another lovely day in Konoha. And finally, Shadow and Kakashi had shown their relationship in public. Most of the villagers however predicted it. That surprised Shadow. But Kakashi just chuckled at the thought.<p>

When Gai found out he was utterly shocked and upset. Gai was planning to ask Shadow on a date but Kakashi beat him to it. But Gai kept trying to 'win her heart' with his fabulous enthusiasm with youth and kept rambling to Shadow that he was a better lover than Kakashi could ever be.

Kakashi was angry with Gai that he kept hitting on Shadow. Kakashi nearly challenged Gai to a real fight when he saw Gai kissing the back of Shadow's hand when they were greeting each other on some occasion.

It took Shadow to calm Kakashi down before there could have been a rampage. But this gives the other ninjas to talk about since it was quite hilarious of how Kakashi was reacting out of his usual ways.

It always set Asuma a wide grin and he would proudly tell the tale to everyone with high enthusiasm. Kakashi however didn't like the sound of the tale that he was being 'uncool' so he kept denying. But Asuma just replied to that with a goofy grin, knowing that it was all true with Kakashi being in denial.

And recently the Chuunin Exams were coming up so the Hokage called a meeting with the teachers. Shadow was doing some training at the time so she didn't go but she relied on Kakashi to inform her of the meeting.

At dusk Kakashi had told her the news of his decision of applying Team 7 in the Chuunin Exams. Shadow couldn't believe her ears when he told her that. They both argued a bit about the Genin going to the Chuunin exams too early.

But Kakashi made a point out to her that they had been complaining constantly with the simple D-rank missions and he believed that they would be able to survive through the exam. Shadow had no doubt the three had enough skills to defend themselves, but she was more worried about Sakura.

Sakura's a sweet girl with an incredibly mind. Her great power is mentally, not physically. Kakashi just placed his hands on her shoulders and said to her while looking into her eyes saying "Don't worry. The boys will protect her."

She just sighed in defeat and trusted his faith in the team.

* * *

><p>Sakura was sitting on a bench somewhere in the village while staring at the ground sadly with her thoughts fogged with the Chuunin exams. Her hands gripped tightly together and she held back the tears threatening coming out of her eyes.<p>

Suddenly she felt somebody sitting beside her on the bench and heard a familiar voice "Something on your mind, Sakura?"

Sakura turned her head and gasped in surprised when she realized that it was Shadow, without her usual uniform. Instead she looked…normal. Her raven hair was down completely, she was showing her face, and she was wearing a dark blue kimono. Beside her was a basket of food. Shadow was shopping grocery.

Sakura was still staring at Shadow in shocked and mumbled in disbelief "S-Shadow-sensei…?"

Shadow turned her head to look at Sakura and replied to her "Yes. Now, are you going to answer my question or stare like you've seen a ghost?" she asked Sakura in a small teasing matter with a small smile. Sakura blushed furiously in embarrassment.

She returned her eyes to the dirt ground as the villagers walked past by doing their own business. Sakura sighed heavily and answered Shadow's question sadly "I don't think I'll make it through the exam…Not alone. I need Sasuke-kun and Naruto's protection to make it through…" Her hands tightened their grip on each other and her jaw tightened. "But I don't want to rely on them my entire life. I have to find a way to prove myself that I can be capable of defending myself."

Sakura's tight grip loosened and sadness returned "But I don't know how exactly…"

Shadow tapped her finger on her lap which her hand was resting. She said to Sakura "You know, many intelligent kunoichi like yourself are trained to be medical ninjas. It takes great mental skill to master medical skills."

Sakura stared up at Shadow surprisingly "You really think I can do that?"

Shadow nodded "Yes. You're the team's caretaker. You could take care of the boys when they need some medical attention. Can you take care of the boys for Kakashi and me?"

Sakura was silent while thinking about it for a while. Then she looked up at Shadow with confident eyes and nodded.

Shadow smiled and placed a reassuring hand on Sakura's shoulder "Good. I knew I could rely on you, Sakura." She stood up and grabbed her basket of food. She said to Sakura "Now I have to go meet that scarecrow sensei of yours."

Sakura giggled and waved goodbye to her and said "Thanks for the help, Shadow-sensei." Shadow looked at her, not knowing what to use the right words to give her the comfort she needed at the moment. So instead she gave Sakura a nod and walked away to meet Kakashi at a certain spot in the market.

Shadow walked through the market at the spot where she was supposed to meet him. She scanned the area carefully and eventually found her eyes landed on a familiar spiky hair ninja sticking out of the crowd at the side of the street.

She smirked softly in amusement as he was easy to find out of the crowd. She moved through the sea of crowd to her now official boyfriend. It took some persuasion from Kakashi to get Shadow to admit that they're now boyfriend and girlfriend.

At first Shadow found is strange calling Kakashi her boyfriend but after a while she started to like it. She saw him leaning against a building while reading that book of his again as usual. Shadow wondered many times if he was ever bored with the books, or was he really perverted to mesmerize every single word in each book.

She said to him "Someday you're going to get tired with that book." Kakashi finally lifted his head up and smiled at her as he closed his book flat.

"Hey, Shadow-chan," he greeted her. He went to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek near her lips. Shadow felt eyes on her so she looked around. Some of the people around were eyeing them but they quickly looked away when Shadow looked.

Shadow saw some of the girls were looking at her in envy or jealousy. The guys were the same while eyeing on Kakashi. Kakashi asked Shadow "How's your day so far?"

She shrugged her shoulders and replied "It was just normal. Nothing special. And you?" she asked.

He shrugged his shoulders as well as a copy of her response "You know. The normal. Been avoiding Gai but I keep threatening him to stay away from my girl."

She arched a brow at him "You know I can talk to him myself, Kakashi. I can take care of myself you know."

He rested his arm around her shoulder and said "I know. But I feel I need to make sure everyone knows you're off limits."

"Okay, now you're sounding like a possessive creep," she flatly said to him but she had to fight the urge to smile.

Kakashi grinned widely at her behind his mask and said "What can I say? I like to keep my woman close to me."

"Your woman?" she asked with a small laugh.

He tried to look at her seriously and brought her closer so his face was an inch away from hers "Yes. **My** woman."

Suddenly they heard a loud familiar voice screaming from the horizon "Shadow-chan~!" Kakashi and Shadow turned their heads – well everyone did – and saw Gai running down the road towards the couple with anime happy tears streaming from his eyes with glittering stars sparkling. "Today you're going to see I'm the right one for you~! And this time I shall not fail~!"

Shadow flinched and felt her teeth ache. Kakashi groaned deeply with annoyance "And everything was going so well…" he muttered under his breath quite grumpily while glaring at the blue sky.

Gai kept running towards the couple and everyone quickly made a path for him in fear that they will get trampled over since Gai didn't seem to cease. Gai tried to slow down but he had some difficulty doing so.

Kakashi and Shadow flinched. Kakashi quickly wrapped his arms around Shadow and jumped to the side just as Gai slipped past them so he crashed into the wall Kakashi was leaning against. Smoke was blown from Gai's impact while everyone was watching.

Shadow coughed a bit from the smoke and waved it away from her face "Gai?" she asked him if he was still conscious. He hit the wall really hard and eventually the owner of the house will be furious with the damage Gai had done.

Kakashi squeezed Shadow's shoulder to signal her to stay put. He walked towards the big hole Gai had made and asked through the rubble "Gai? Are you okay in there?" Kakashi asked as he waved the smoke away from his face as he drew closer to where Gai was probably laying.

Kakashi heard a deep groan from Gai and heard some bricks being pushed away. Gai stood up and wobbled a bit while covering in filth. Gai asked Kakashi "W-Why is the room spinning…? And why are there three of you, Kakashi…?" He tried to walk but he fell onto his face again before Kakashi's feet.

Kakashi sighed heavily and scratched the side of his head while looking down at his friend/rival "What am I going to do with you…?" he mumbled.

Gai groaned again and stood up once more. But he was more stable than before. Gai shook his head to try to clear his head. He stopped when he saw Shadow behind Kakashi and he instantly got anime heart shaped eyes with his jaw dropped.

He cheered with high enthusiasm "Shadow-chan~!" Gai ran past Kakashi to get to Shadow.

But Gai didn't get far because Kakashi quickly grabbed Gai from the back of his jumpsuit and growled at him "For the last time, Gai. Stay away from **my** girlfriend. She's off limits."

Gai glared at him over his shoulders and shouted "Come on, Kakashi! At least let me talk to her! What's wrong with that!?"

"Gai, I'm doing you a favour. I'm saving your ass from being murdered from her," he pointed at Shadow. "She has quite a stubborn temper."

Shadow heard that of course and glared at Kakashi "What was that!?"

Kakashi said to Gai "See? And you being you, you are likely going to get your ass kicked very badly."

Gai opened his mouth to say something but suddenly they heard a loud male voice "What the hell happened to my house!?" Everyone turned their heads to see an old man gawking at the hole of his house. Kakashi released Gai and quickly went to Shadow's side.

Shadow glared at him and looked away from him grumpily while crossing her arms. Gai sulked while he was being scolded by the owner of the house. Eventually Gai was on his knees bowing the owner for forgiveness and will pay for the damage.

Everyone else quickly ceased. Shadow walked away towards her apartment. Kakashi noticed her quick retreat and so quickly caught up with her. He grabbed her arm gently but she pulled away from him while glaring up ahead.

Kakashi arched a brow as he walked beside her and asked her "What's the matter?"

She stayed quiet and continued to walk silently.

"…Are you going to ignore me the entire day?"

She nodded "It's your punishment."

"For what?" he asked.

She answered him grumpily "For upsetting me for having a stubborn temper."

He quickly blocked her way and she accidently bumped into his chest. She quickly pulled away and glared up at him. She intended to move around him but he moved quickly to block her way. She groaned deeply "Kakashi," as a warning that if he doesn't move in 2 seconds, she would have to take drastic measures.

He smiled at her and said "Ordeyna-chan, I know you won't be able to ignore the entire day. You like me too much." He only used her real name was no one around.

She gave him a daring look and said "Watch me." She tried to move around him again but he quickly grabbed her arm and pushed her against the wooden fence.

"I find you adorable when you're frustrated, Ordeyna-chan. It's also quite a turn on for me…" he said to her huskily in her ear. She shivered in delight and grabbed hold of his green vest. She tried to clear her head and remember that she was angry with him. But he was making it impossible for her as he was gently kissing her skin with such delight sparks going through her body that would make her knees to go weak.

Kakashi must have sensed it because he quickly wrapped his arms around her to keep her up and strongly pushed her against the fence for more support. He quickly pulled his mask down, slightly pulled away so he could look down at her face and then finally claimed her lips with his bare ones.

Ordeyna felt her stomach twist and turned with countless butterflies. She dropped her basket of food to the ground without care and snaked her arms around his neck to make the kiss deeper. Kakashi plunge his tongue inside her mouth and hadn't missed a single spot untouched.

She moaned softly which sent Kakashi a delight shiver through his body and especially in his lower region. Finally they pulled away while panting heavily. Kakashi brought his hand up and caressed her cheek with the back of his fingers while she was looking at him in daze.

He softly said to her through panting "You drive me crazy, Ordeyna…You know that?"

She smirked up at him with a soft laugh "And you drive me into insanity most of the time. But I guess that's one of the perks about us."

He chuckled and pecked her lips. "It's good to know I drive my woman crazy. It makes things exciting."

"You keep that up and soon you'll find my way of making things exciting too drastic."

He groaned softly with a perverted grin on his face "Hmm…my woman is kinky and naughty…I guess we are destined for each other."

She let out a small humorous laugh and mumbled "Pervert," under her breath. But she brought her head to cup his face and leaned her head up to kiss him again. After she pulled away from the kiss she looked down and saw the food sprawled across the ground.

"Shit…" she cursed under her breath for being careless. Kakashi quickly bent down to gather the food back into her basket. He stood up and pulled his mask up.

He asked her "Your place or mine?"

She shrugged her shoulders "I don't mind either way."

He smoothly grabbed her hand with his free one and smiled at her "Then my place it is. I'm sure the dogs will be delighted to see you. They've been curious about you."

She cringed as she was being softly dragged by Kakashi to his place, even though they live in the same building. She liked dogs but she wasn't certain of Kakashi's dog will like her. She asked him "Are you sure it's okay to introduce the dogs to me? I mean…what if they don't like me?"

Kakashi looked at her a bit surprisingly and asked her "What? Are you nervous?"

She didn't like to admit it but she was. But Kakashi seemed he could read her like a book. He smiled at her reassuringly behind his blue mask and said "Don't worry, Shadow-chan. If they don't like you, I won't change my mind being with you. Unless you…" he trailed off the sentence just as his smile disappeared.

Shadow rooted on the spot which made him to stop. She pulled him towards her gently to face her. She looked up at him confidently and said "Hey, I'm not planning to leave you, unless you leave me with no choice."

He started to shake his head "I wouldn't want to-!" he was cut off when she placed a finger on his lips to make him stop talking.

"Let me finish." She sighed heavily and pulled he finger from his lips and continued "I've…grown to care for you…a great deal. And I won't care what other people will think except you."

Kakashi was quite speechless until he suddenly brought her into a tight hug and kissed her through his mask. He pulled away and muttered "Damn it…" under his breath.

She rested her free arm on his broad shoulders and asked him "What?"

He answered her "Since I've met you, I've been wishing most of the time that I wasn't wearing a mask."

She smirked up him and brushed her lips against his softly. He groaned deeply and closed his visible eye shut tightly "Shadow…"

She stopped instantly when she felt something…poking against her thigh. "Oh my…" she muttered under her breath in surprise. She smiled widely up at Kakashi and asked him "Someone is **very** happy…"

He let out a small laugh and tried to pretend to be angry "You're not helping, Shadow-chan…"

She laughed softly and rubbed his neck to try to calm him down "I was just joking with you…" she gently pulled her hand from their hand bond and placed both of her hands behind his neck. "Come here…"

She brought his head down so he was resting his head on her shoulders. He closed his eyes as he was engulfed by her soft warmth and smell of jasmine. He buried his nose in her hair and inhaled deeply to remember it and it was intoxicating to him.

He wrapped his arms around her waist to bring her body against him and he walked a bit backwards to lean against the wooden fence as support. She was resting her head on his shoulder while playing the back of his hair softly while waiting for him to calm down.

Couldn't come back home to the dogs with a boner, could they?

After three minutes he calmed down. He pulled away slowly and said to her softly "You're going to be the death of me someday, woman…"

She smirked at him "I'll hold you to that, Hatake…" She hesitated for a moment as she glanced at his hand. She gulped as she kept her head down while blushing softly. She slowly grabbed his hand and intertwined her fingers with his.

Kakashi observed silently while feeling quite surprised and proud of her for being opened to him. There was still so much he wanted to know about her but every time he tried to open her heart to him she would quickly shut him down by changing the subject.

He planned to take things slowly with her. And this was a good start. He would usually be the one to make a move but these are the rare times for her to do it first. She softly smiled at him and softly nudged him towards the direction of their apartment.

Kakashi slowly walked beside her and asked her softly "Are you sure you don't want to go back the usual way?" And their usual way of going back home was a short transportation jutsu. Shadow would get nervous and would suggest Kakashi to transport back to their apartment instead of walking through the streets together. She just couldn't last a long time while being watched by everyone like a freak.

Kakashi said to her reassuringly "It's okay if you don't want to walk. We can transport there." He pulled his hand away from their hand bond to form a hand sign but was quickly recaptured by her. She shook her head to him and eyed the streets.

"No…I…want to walk…I want to know how it would feel…"

Kakashi felt his heart racing rapidly in his chest as those words came out. He knew what he was trying to say and he couldn't be any happier. He managed to pull his mask down in a flash and crashed his lips against hers.

She muffled in the kiss in surprise. Before she could kiss back he pulled away. He pecked her a few times and then finally stopped. "A-Are you sure…?"

Shadow glanced at the street once more and nodded to him. He smiled at her and pecked her lips before pulling his mask up. He grabbed her hand softly and guided her gently to the street. Shadow took some deep breathes to calm herself and finally faced what she had been avoiding since she and Kakashi started to be official.

She had avoided looking into anyone's eyes while staying close to Kakashi as they walked. Kakashi went near her ear and softly said to her "It's okay, Shadow-chan. Take some deep breathes…" She followed his instructions.

Finally they reached the stair case of their apartment building. Shadow only took one step but she was stopped by Kakashi. She looked back at Kakashi and asked him "What's wrong? I thought you want to get back to your place?"

He asked her "How are you feeling?"

She took a moment to realize what she had been feeling while walking through the street like any other couple. It was partly terrifying and amazing. Kakashi had a big part in it. He was her support like a pillar holding a roof.

She breathed in deeply and answered his question "It was…wonderfully terrifying…"

He chuckled deeply and said "Baby steps, Shadow-chan. You have to crawl before you could walk. At least it's a start."

He and Shadow walked up the stairs to his apartment. They stopped in front of his door and asked her "Are you ready to meet the rest of the family?"

She said to him confidently with a small smile "There's nothing I can't handle now."

He smiled at her and kissed her on the lips "That's my angel…"

She looked at him surprisingly and was quite speechless of what he was called her. She finally managed to find her voice and asked him in disbelief "A-Angel?" Before when she was roaming around, mostly everyone would call her a heartless demon. But hearing that from Kakashi sounded so alien to her but her heart felt like it grew some fluttering wings.

She shook her head as she lowered her head "Kakashi, don't call me things you don't mean to…"

Her chin was softly grabbed and her face was lifted so she could look up at him. He solemnly looked at her and said "I'm not saying it to please you. I'm saying it because that's what I see when I look at you…" He pushed some of her black hair behind her ear as she was slightly trembling in disbelief while looking down.

He quickly put the food basket on the ground and wrapped his arms around her to support her because her knees were shaking. He whispered in her ear "Breath…Take deep breathes…"

She obeyed and felt herself slowly relaxing. After a while Kakashi slightly pulled away to look at her. He felt guilty because she looked quite upset. So he said to her "I won't call you that if you're uncomfortable…"

She shook her head "It's not that…It's just that…" she leaned her head against his chest and he tightened his hold around her as he listened carefully "…everyone would consider me a demon than an…angel…I've considered myself a monster after so long..."

He cupped her cheek and raised her face to look up at him. He smiled down at her and said "Then you don't see what I see."

She felt her heart beating rapidly in her chest. Her stomach filled with butterflies. Her mind cloudy with desire for this man. Suddenly they heard a loud voice from behind the door of Kakashi's apartment "Kakashi! We know you're out there! What's taking you so long!? We're starving in here~!"

Kakashi groaned deeply while glaring at his apartment door. "And there goes the moment…" he muttered angrily while Shadow was blushing slightly.

"One of your dogs I presume."

"Yep," answered Kakashi as he pulled his house key out to open the door.

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><p><strong>Reviews would be fantastic! It will make me type and post faster. :)<strong>


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